II  III  II  HM    I 


THE  WAR 
XFTERTHEWAR 


ISAAC  F.MMJCOSSON 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


>t/t  C^f^^iffx^ 


7 


THE    WAR    AFTER    THE   WAR 


UHVf.  ©F  CALIF.  LIBRARY.  LOS  ANGELF^ 


THE  WAR 
AFTER  THE  WAR 


BY 

ISAAC  F.  MARCOSSON 

CO-A0THOR  OF  "CHARLES  FROHMAN,  MANAGER  AND  MAN" 

AtntHOR  OF  "the  autobiography  of  a  clown,"  etc. 


NEW  YORK:  JOHN  LANE  COMPANY 
LONDON:  JOHN  LANE,  THE  BODLEY  HEAD 
TORONTO:    S.  B.  GUNDY     :    :    :     MCMXVIJ 


gopyright,  i916,  by  the  curtis  publishing  company 
Copyright,  1916,  by  The  Ridgway  Company 


Copyright,  1917, 
By  John  Lane  Company 


Press  of 

J.  J.  Little  &  Ives  Company 

New  York.  U.  S.  A. 


r 


/^  3  3  Vu. 


TO 

LORD  NORTHCLIFFE 

IN   GRATEFUL  APPRECIATION 


2131686 


FOREWORD 


FOR  nearly  three  years   Europe  has 
been  drenched  with  blood  and  rent 
with  bitter  strife.     Millions  of  men 
have  been  killed  or  maimed:  billions 
of  dollars  in  property  have  gone  up  in  smoke 
and  ruin — all  part  of  the  mighty  sacrifice 
laid  on  the  Altar  of  the  Great  War. 

This  tragic  tumult  must  inevitably  sub- 
side. The  smoke  of  battle  will  clear:  the 
scarred  fields  will  mantle  again  with  spring- 
time verdure:  the  fighting  hosts  will  once 
more  find  their  way  to  peaceful  pursuit. 
Time  the  Healer  will  wipe  out  the  wounds 
of  war. 

The  world  already  wearies  of  the  Crimson 
Canvas  splashed  with  martial  scene.  Hero- 
ism has  become  the  most  commonplace  of 
qualities :  it  takes  a  monster  thrill  to  move  a 
civilisation  sick  of  destruction.  With  eager 
eye  it  looks  forward  to  the  era  of  regenera- 
tion.   War  ends  some  time. 

Business  never  ceases.  Under  the  shock 
of  mighty  upheaval  it  has  been  dislocated 

7 


8  Foreword 


by  the  most  drastic  strain  ever  put  upon  the 
economic  fabric.  But  it  will  march  on  long 
after  Peace  will  have  mercifully  sheathed 
the  Sword.  Therefore  the  permanent  world 
problem  is  the  Business  problem. 

This  is  why  I  made  two  trips  to  Europe: 
why  I  submit  this  little  book  in  the  hope  that 
it  may  point  the  way  to  some  realisation  of 
the  immense  responsibilities  which  will  inev- 
itably crowd  upon  the  world  and  more  espe- 
cially upon  the  United  States. 

Peace  will  be  as  great  a  shock  as  War. 
Hence  the  need  of  Preparedness  to  meet  the 
inevitable  conflict  for  Universal  Trade.  We 
— as  a  nation — are  as  unready  for  this  emer- 
gency as  we  are  to  meet  the  clash  of  actual 
physical  combat.  Commercial  Preparedness 
is  as  vital  to  the  national  well  being  as  the 
Training  for  Arms. 

Nor  will  Commerce  be  the  only  thing  that 
we  will  have  to  reckon  with.  When  you 
have  heard  the  guns  roar  and  watched  hori- 
zons flame  with  fury  and  seen  men  go  to 
their  death  smiling  and  unafraid;  when  the 
pitiless  panorama  of  carnage  has  passed  be- 
fore you  in  terms  of  terror  and  tragedy,  you 
realise  that  there  is  something  human  as 


Foreword  9 

well  as  economic  in   the  relentless  Thing 
called  War. 

It  means  that  just  as  there  was  no  com- 
promise with  dishonour  in  the  approach  to 
the  Super-Struggle  for  which  nations  are 
pouring  out  their  youth  and  fortune,  so  will 
there  be  no  flinching  in  that  coming  contest 
for  commercial  mastery — the  bloodless  af- 
termath of  History's  deadliest  and  costliest 
war. 

We  have  reached  a  place  in  the  World 
Trade  Sun.  Unless  we  are  ready  to  hold 
it  we  will  slip  into  the  Shadow. 

We  must  prepare. 

I.  F.  M. 


CONTENTS 

CBAFTEB 
I. 

The;  Coming  War    .    .    . 

PAQB 
.               15 

11. 

EngivAnd  Awaks  .... 

.              40 

III. 

IV. 

Ame:rican       Busine:ss       i 
France: 

The;  Ne;w  France;    .     .     . 

n 

.    71 

.    98 

V. 

Saving  for  Victory    .     . 

.     120 

VI. 

The;  Pric^  of  Gi.ory    .     . 

.    164 

VIL 

The;  Man  Li.oyd  Ge;org^  . 

.     210 

VIII. 

From  Pe;dIvAr  to  Pr^mie;r  . 

.  258 

THE    WAR   AFTER   THE   WAR 


I — The  Coming  War 


WHILE  the  guns  roar  from  the 
North  Sea  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  the  greatest  armed 
host  that  history  has  ever  known 
is  still  locked  in  a  life-and-death  struggle 
on  a  dozen  fronts,  another  war,  more  po- 
tent and  permanent  perhaps  than  the  one 
which  now  engulfs  Europe,  lurks  beyond  the 
distant  horizon  of  peace. 

Its  fighting  line  will  be  the  boundaries  of 
all  human  needs;  its  dynamic  purpose  a 
heroic  rehabilitation  after  stupendous  loss. 
It  will  be  the  far-flung  struggle  for  the  rich 
prize  of  International  Trade,  waiting  at  the 
end  of  the  Crimson  Lane  that  sooner  or  later 
will  have  a  turning. 

Embattled  commercial  groups  will  sup- 
plant embroiled  nations;  boycotts,  discrimi- 
nations and  exclusions  will  succeed  the 
strategies  of  line  and  trench;  the  animosities 
fought  out  to-day  with  shell  and  steel  will 
have  their  heritage  in  ruthless  rivalries. 
How  shall  we  fare  in  this  tumult  of  tariff 
15 


16  The  War  After  the  War 

and  treaty?  Where  shall  we  stand  when 
the  curtain  of  fire  fades  before  a  task  of  re- 
generation that  will  spell  economic  rebirth 
or  disaster  for  millions?  Will  fiscal  punish- 
ment be  meted  out  to  neutral  and  foe  alike  ? 
Will  reason  rule  or  revenge  dictate  a  costly 
reprisal  in  this  war  after  the  war? 

These  are  the  questions  that  rise  out  of 
the  dust  and  din  of  the  colossal  upheaval 
which  is  rending  half  of  the  world.  Di- 
rectly or  indirectly  they  touch  the  whole 
American  people,  regardless  of  rank  or 
wealth.  The  tide  of  w^ar  has  rolled  us  far 
upon  the  shores  of  world  affairs.  We  have 
prospered  in  the  kinship  of  the  nations. 
Will  the  ebb  of  peace  leave  us  high  and  dry 
amid  a  mighty  isolation  ? 

I  went  to  England  and  France  to  study 
this  problem  at  first  hand.  I  interviewed 
Cabinet  Ministers ;  I  talked  with  lawmakers, 
soldiers,  captains  of  capital,  masters  of  in- 
dustry, and  plain,  everyday  business  men. 
Often  the  talk  was  disturbed  by  shriek  of 
shell  or  bomb  of  midnight  Zeppelin  marau- 
der. 

Through  all  the  travail  of  debt  and  death 
that  rends  the  allied  peoples  runs  the  clear 


The  Coming  War  17 

current  of  determination  to  retrieve  the  im- 
mense loss.  War  is  waste;  some  one  must 
pay — we  among  the  rest.  Already  the  guns 
are  being  trained  for  the  inevitable  com- 
mercial battle,  which,  willingly  or  unwill- 
ingly, will  bring  us  under  fire.  Let  us  ex- 
amine the  plan  of  campaign. 

But  before  going  into  the  concrete  de- 
tails that  mean  so  much  to  our  future  and 
our  fortune,  it  is  important  to  understand 
some  very  essential  conditions. 

First  and  foremost  is  the  uncertainty  of 
the  war  itself.  All  prophecy — at  best  a  dan- 
gerous thing — is  purest  speculation.  No 
one  can  tell  how  long  the  duel  will  last ;  how 
badly  the  loser  will  be  beaten ;  what  the  terms 
of  peace  will  be.  Yet  out  of  these  contin- 
gencies will  emerge  the  strong  hands  that 
will  redraw  the  trade  map  of  the  world. 
Whatever  the  outcome,  the  countries  now 
fighting,  especially  the  Allies,  have  definitely 
stated  the  principles  that  must  govern — for 
a  long  time,  at  least — the  whole  realignment 
of  commercial  relations.  Their  way  shall 
be  the  universal  way. 

In  the  second  place,  be  you  Ally  or  Teuton 
and  regardless  of  how  you  may  feel  about 


18  The  War  After  the  War 

the  ethics  of  the  Great  Struggle,  it  must  be 
remembered  that  behind  the  glamour  as 
to  whether  it  is  waged  to  conserve  human 
liberty,  maintain  the  integrity  of  "scraps  of 
paper"  or  to  safeguard  democracy,  the 
larger  fact  remains  that  it  is  a  war  rooted 
in  commercial  jealousies  and  fanned  by  com- 
mercial aggressions. 

Now  we  come  to  the  really  vital  point,  and 
it  is  this:  When  the  guns  are  hushed  you 
will  find  that  national  and  industrial  defence 
among  the  warring  countries  will  be  one  and 
the  same  thing.  The  Allies  learned  to  their 
cost  that  the  economic  advance  of  Germany 
was  merely  part  of  her  one-time  resistless 
military  machine.  Her  trade  and  her  pre- 
paredness went  conqueringly  hand  in  hand. 
Henceforth  that  game  will  be  played  by  all. 
England,  for  instance,  will  manufacture  dye- 
stuffs  not  only  for  her  textile  trades,  but 
because  coal-tar  products  are  essential  to 
the  making  of  high  explosives. 

Thus,  Competition,  which  was  once  merely 
part  of  the  natural  progress  of  a  country, 
will  hereafter  be  a  large  part  of  the  struggle 
for  national  existence. 

There  is  still  another  factor:    No  matter 


The  Coming  War  19 

who  wins,  peace  must  mean  prosperity  for 
everybody.  For  the  victor  it  will  take  the 
form  of  an  attempted  stewardship  of  trade 
and  navigation;  for  the  vanquished  it  will 
be  the  dedication  of  a  terrible  energy  to  the 
twin  restoration  of  pride  and  product. 

Now  you  begin  to  see  why  it  is  up  to  the 
United  States  to  make  ready  for  whatever 
business  fate  awaits  her  beyond  the  uncer- 
tain frontiers  of  to-morrow.  Nor  have  we 
been  without  warning  of  what  may  be  in 
store  for  us.  Prohibitive  tariffs,  blacklists 
and  boycotts,  embargoes  on  mail  and  cargo, 
the  exclusion  from  England  and  France  of 
hundreds  of  our  manufactured  articles — all 
show  which  way  the  international  trade 
winds  may  blow  when  the  belligerents  be- 
gin to  take  toll  of  their  losses.  Meantime, 
what  are  the  facts? 

Take  the  case  of  England.  Thirty  years 
ago  she  was  the  workshop  of  the  world. 
From  the  Tyne  to  the  Thames  her  factories 
hummed  with  ceaseless  industry.  Her  goods 
went  wherever  her  ships  steamed,  and  that 
meant  the  globe.  Supreme  in  her  insularity 
— at  once  her  defence  and  her  undoing — 
she  became  infected  with  the  virus  of  con- 


2j0  The  War  After  the  War 

tent.  Her  steel  was  the  best  steel ;  her  wares 
.led  all  the  rest.  ''Take  it  or  leave  it!"  was 
her  selling  maxim.  When  devices  came 
along  that  saved  labour  and  increased  pro- 
duction she  refused  to  scrap  the  old  to  make 
way  for  the  new.  Born,  too,  was  the  evil 
of  restricted  output.  Moss  began  to  grow 
on  her  vaunted  industrial  structure.  Eng- 
land lagged  in  the  trade  procession. 

But  as  she  lagged  the  assimilative  German 
streamed  in  through  her  hospitable  door. 
He  served  his  apprenticeship  in  British 
mills;  took  home  the  secrets  and  methods 
of  British  art  and  craft.  He  geared  them 
to  cheap  labour,  harnessed  product  to  mas- 
terful distribution,  and  became  a  World 
Power.  Before  long  he  had  annexed  the  dye 
trade;  was  competing  with  British  steel; 
was  making  once-cherished  British  goods. 

What  the  German  did  in  England  he  du- 
plicated elsewhere.  The  world  of  ideas  was 
his  field  and,  with  insatiate  hunger,  he  gar- 
nered them  in.  He  cunningly  acquired  the 
sources  of  raw  supply,  especially  the  essen- 
tials to  national  defence;  for  he  overlooked 
nothing.  All  was  grist  to  his  mills.  He 
pitched  his  tents  upon  debatable  trade  lands. 


The  Coming  War  21 

Hi^  rivals  called  it  economic  penetration, 
because  he  invariably  took  root.  For  him 
it  was  merely  good  business. 

Then* England  suddenly  realised  that  Ger- 
many had  left  her  behind  in  the  race  for 
international  commerce.  Indifference  lay 
at  the  root  of  this  backsliding.  It  was  easier 
and  cheaper  to  buy  the  German-made  prod- 
uct and  reship  it  than  to  produce  the  same 
article  at  home.  Sloth  hung  like  a  chain 
on  English  energy.  What  did  it  matter? 
No  forest  of  bayonets  hemmed  her  in;  she 
was  still  Mistress  of  the  Seas. 

Meantime  Germany  dripped  with  effi- 
ciency and  ached  with  expansion.  Her 
amazing  teamwork  between  state  and  busi- 
ness, stimulated  by  an  interested  finance, 
drove  her  on  to  a  place  in  the  sun.  The 
shadows  seemed  far  away  when  the  great 
war  crashed  into  civilisation.  Then  England 
woke  to  the  folly  of  her  blindness.  The  mys- 
tery of  coal-tar  products  was  shut  up  in  a 
German  laboratory;  the  secrets  of  tungsten, 
necessary  to  the  toughest  steel,  were  im- 
prisoned in  a  Teutonic  mill ;  and  so  on  down 
a  long  list  of  products  vital  to  industry  and 
defence. 


22  The  War  After  the  War 

Even  those  early  and  tragic  reverses  of 
the  war  did  not  stir  the  stolid  British  bulk. 
Men  fought  for  a  chance  to  fight;  restric- 
tion still  oppressed  factory  output.  Red  tape 
vied  with  tradition  to  block  the  path  of  mili- 
tary and  industrial  preparation. 

Then  the  Lion  stirred ;  the  sloth  fell  away ; 
men  and  munitions  were  enlisted ;  the  strong 
hand  was  put  on  labour  tyranny;  conscrip- 
tion succeeded  the  haphazard  voluntary  sys- 
tem. Britain  got  busy  and  she  has  buzzed 
ever  since. 

When  the  kingdom  had  become  a  huge 
arsenal;  when  the  old  sex  differences  van- 
ished under  the  touchstone  of  a  common 
peril;  when  the  first  khaki  host  swept  to  its 
place  in  the  battle  line,  and  the  grey  fleets 
were  once  more  queens  of  the  seas,  England 
turned  to  the  task  of  commercial  rebuilding, 
once  neglected,  but  thenceforth  to  be  part 
and  parcel  of  British  purpose. 

Animating  this  purpose,  stirring  it  like  a 
vast  emotion,  was  the  New  Battle  Cry  of 
Empire — the  kindling  Creed  of  United  Do- 
minions, consecrated  to  the  economic  mas- 
tery of  the  world. 

But  this  revival  was  not  an  overnight  per- 


The  Coming  War  23 

formance.  If  you  know  England  you  also 
know  that  it  takes  a  colossal  jolt  to  stir  the 
British  mind.  The  war  had  been  in  full 
swing  for  over  a  year  and  the  countryside 
was  an  armed  camp  before  the  realisation  of 
what  might  happen  commercially  after  the 
war  soaked  into  the  average  islander's  con- 
sciousness. 

Under  the  impassioned  eloquence  of  Lloyd 
George  the  munition  workers  had  been  mar- 
shalled into  an  inspired  working  host; 
with  the  magic  of  Kitchener's  name,  the 
greatest  of  all  voluntary  armies  came  into 
being.  But  it  remained  for  Hughes,  of  Aus- 
tralia, to  point  out  the  fresh  path  for  the 
feet  of  the  race. 

Who  is  Hughes,  of  Australia?  You  need 
not  ask  in  England,  for  the  story  of  his  ad- 
vent, the  record  of  his  astounding  triumph, 
the  thrilling  message  that  he  left  implanted 
in  the  British  breast,  constitute  one  of  the 
miracles  of  a  war  that  is  one  long  succes- 
sion of  dramatic  episodes.  This  Colonial 
Prime  Minister  arrived  unknown:  he  left  a 
popular  hero'. 

Thanks  to  him,  Australia  was  prepared 
for  war ;  and  when  the  Mother  Lioness  sent 


24  The  War  After  the  War 

out  the  world  call  to  her  cubs  beyond  the 
seas  there  was  swift  response  from  the  men 
of  bush  and  range.  The  world  knows  what 
the  Anzacs  did  in  the  Dardanelles ;  how  they 
registered  a  monster  heroism  on  the  rocky 
heights  of  Gallipoli;  gave  a  new  glory  to 
British  arms. 

England  rang  with  their  achievements. 
What  could  she  do  to  pay  tribute  to  their 
courage  ?  Hughes  was  their  national  leader 
and  spokesman ;  so  the  Political  Powers  That 
Be  said: 

*Xet  us  invite  the  Premier  to  sit  in  the 
councils  of  the  empire  and  advise  us  about 
our  future  trade  policy." 

Already  Hughes  had  declared  trade  war 
on  Germany  in  Australia.  Under  his  leader- 
ship every  German  had  been  banished  from 
commonwealth  business;  by  a  special  act  of 
Parliament  the  complete  and  well-nigh  war- 
proof  Teutonic  control  of  the  famous  Broken 
Hill  metal  fields  had  been  annulled.  He 
stood,  therefore,  as  a  living  defiance  to  the 
renewal  of  all  commercial  relations  with  the 
Central  Powers.  But  he  went  further  than 
this :  He  decreed  trade  extermination  of  the 
enemy — merciless  war  beyond  the  war. 


The  Coming  War  25 

With  his  first  speech  in  England  Hughes 
created  a  sensation.  Before  he  came  com- 
mercial feeling  against  Germany  ran  high. 
Hughes  crystallised  it  into  a  definite  cry. 
He  said  what  eight  out  of  every  ten  men  in 
the  street  were  thinking.  His  voice  became 
the  Voice  of  Eriipire.  Up  and  down  England 
and  before  cheering  crowds  he  preached  the 
doctrine  of  trade  war  to  the  death  on  Ger- 
many. He  denounced  the  laxness  that  had 
permitted  the  "German  taint  to  run  like  a 
cancer  through  the  fair  body  of  English 
trade";  he  urged  complete  economic  inde- 
pendence of  the  Dominions.  His  persistent 
plea  was,  'We  must  have  the  fruits  of  vic- 
tory"; and  those  fruits,  he  declared,  com- 
prised all  the  trade  that  Germany  had 
hitherto  enjoyed,  and  as  much  more  as  could 
be  lawfully  gained. 

He  urged  that  the  blood  brotherhood  of 
empire,  quickened  by  that  dramatic  S.O.S. 
call  for  men  across  the  sea  and  cemented 
by  the  common  trench  hazard,  be  followed 
by  a  union  of  empire  after  the  war  that 
should  be  self-sufficient.  Behind  all  this 
eloquent  talk  of  protection  and  prohibition 
lay  the  first  real  menace  to  America's  new 


26  The  War  After  the  War 

place  as  a  world  trade  power.  It  was  the 
opening  call  to  arms  for  the  war  after  the 
war. 

Hughes  did  more  than  set  England  to 
thinking  in  imperial  terms.  He  upset  most 
of  the  calculations  of  the  Powers  That  Be 
who  invited  him.  They  expected  an  amiable, 
able  and  plastic  counsellor ;  they  got  an  ora- 
torical live  wire,  who  would  not  be  ruled, 
and  who  shocked  deep-rooted  free-trade  con- 
victions to  the  core.  He  helped  to  launch 
a  whole  new  era  of  thought  and  action;  and 
the  next  chapter  of  its  progress  was  now  to 
be  recorded  under  circumstances  pregnant 
with  meaning  for  the  whole  universe  of 
trade. 

The  second  winter  of  war  had  passed,  and 
with  it  much  of  the  dark  night  that  en- 
shrouded the  Allies'  arms.  On  land  and  sea 
rained  the  first  blows  of  the  great  assaults 
that  were  to  make  a  summer  of  content  for 
the  Entente  cause.  Its  arsenals  teemed  with 
shells ;  its  men  were  fit ;  victory,  however  dis- 
tant, seemed  at  last  assured.  The  time  had 
come  to  prepare  a  new  kind  of  drive — the 
combined  attack  upon  enemy  trade  and  any 
other  that  happened  to  be  in  the  way. 


TJie  Coming  War  27 

Thus  it  came  about  that  on  a  brilliant  sun- 
lit day  last  June  twoscore  men  sat  round  a 
long  table  in  a  stately  room  of  a  palace  that 
overlooked  the  Seine,  in  Paris.  Eminent 
lawmakers — Hughes,  of  Australia,  among 
them — were  there  aplenty ;  but  few  practical 
business  men. 

On  the  walls  hung  the  trade  maps  of  the 
world;  spread  before  them  were  the  red- 
dotted  diagrams  that  showed  the  water  high- 
ways where  traffic  flowed  in  happier  and 
serener  days.  For  coming  generations  of 
business  everywhere  it  was  a  fateful  meet- 
ing because  the  now  famous  Economic  Con- 
ference of  the  Allies  was  about  to  reshape 
those  maps  and  change  the  channels  of  com- 
merce. 

All  the  while,  and  less  than  a  hundred 
miles  away,  Verdun  seethed  with  death ;  still 
nearer  brewed  the  storm  of  the  Somme. 

These  men  were  assembled  to  fix  the  price 
of  all  this  blood  and  sacrifice,  and  they  did. 
In  what  has  come  to  be  known  as  the  Paris 
Pact  they  bound  themselves  together  by  eco- 
nomic ties  and  pledged  themselves  to  present 
a  united  economic  front.  They  unfurled 
the  banner  of  aggressive  reprisal  with  the 


28  The  War  After  the  War 

sole  object  of  crushing  the  one-time  busi- 
ness supremacy  of  their  foes. 

The  chief  recommendations  were:  To 
meet,  by  tariff  discrimination,  boycott  or 
otherwise,  any  individual  or  organised  trade 
advance  of  the  Central  Powers — already 
Germany,  Austria,  Turkey  and  Bulgaria 
have  reached  a  commercial  understanding; 
to  forego  any  "favoured-nation"  relation 
with  the  enemy  for  an  indefinite  period;  to 
conserve  for  themselves,  "before  all  others," 
their  natural  resources  during  the  period  of 
reconstruction;  to  make  themselves  inde- 
pendent of  enemy  countries  in  the  raw  ma- 
terials and  manufactured  products  essential 
to  their  economic  well-being;  and  to  facili- 
tate this  exchange  by  preferential  trade 
among  themselves,  and  by  special  and  state 
subsidies  to  shipping,  railroads  and  tele- 
graphs. Another  important  decree  prohibits 
the  enemy  from  engaging  in  certain  indus- 
tries and  professions,  such  as  dyestuffs,  in 
allied  countries  when  these  industries  relate 
to  national  defence  or  economic  indepen- 
dence. 

In  short,  self-sufficiency  became  the  aim 
of  the  whole  allied  group,  to  be  achieved 


The  Coming  War  29 

without  the  aid  or  consent  of  any  other  na- 
tion or  group  of  nations,  be  they  friends  or 
foes. 

Here,  then,  is  the  strategy  that  will  rule 
after  the  war.  A  huge  allied  monopoly  is 
projected — a  sort  of  monster  militant  trust, 
with  cabinets  of  ministers  for  directorates, 
armies  and  navies  as  trade  scouts,  and  whole 
roused  citizenships  for  salesmen. 

Throughout  this  new  Bill  of  World  Trade 
Rights  there  is  scant  mention  of  neutrals — 
no  reference  at  all  to  the  greatest  of  non- 
belligerent nations.  Yet  the  document  is 
packed  with  interest,  fraught  even  with 
highest  concern,  for  us.  Upon  the  ability 
to  be  translated  into  offensive  and  defensive 
reality  will  depend  a  large  part  of  our  fu- 
ture international  commercial  relations. 

Is  the  Paris  Pact  practical?  Will  it  with- 
stand the  logical  pressure  of  business  de- 
mand and  supply  when  the  war  is  ended? 
How  will  it  affect  American  trade? 

To  try  to  get  the  answer  I  talked  with 
many  men  in  England  and  France  who  were 
intimately  concerned.  Some  had  sat  in  the 
conference;  others  had  helped  to  shape  its 
approach;  still  others  were  dedicated  to  its 


30  The  War  After  the  War 

far-spreading  purpose.  I  found  an  astonish- 
ing conflict  of  opinion.  Even  those  who 
had  attended  this  most  momentous  of  all 
economic  conferences  were  sceptical  about 
complete  results.  Yet  no  one  questioned  the 
intent  to  smash  enemy  trade.  Will  our  in- 
terests be  pinched  at  the  same  time? 

Regardless  of  what  any  European  states- 
man may  say  to  the  contrary,  one  deduction 
of  supreme  significance  to  us  arises  out  of 
the  whole  proposition.  Summed  up,  it  is 
this: 

Mutual  preference  by  or  for  the  members 
of  either  of  the  great  European  alliances 
automatically  creates  a  discrimination 
against  those  outside !  Whether  we  face  the 
Teuton  or  the  Allies'  group — or  both — in 
the  grand  economic  line-up,  we  shall  have 
to  fight  for  commercial  privileges  that  once 
knew  no  ban. 

There  are  two  well-defined  beliefs  about 
the  practical  working  out  of  the  pact  as  a 
pact.  Let  us  take  the  objections  first.  They 
find  expression  in  a  strong  body  of  opinion 
that  the  whole  procedure  is  both  unhuman 
and  uneconomic — a  campaign  document,  as 
it  were,  conceived  in  the  heat  and  passion  of 


The  Coming  War  31 

a  great  war,  projected  for  political  effect  in 
cementing  the  allied  lines.  In  short,  it  is 
what  business  men  would  call  a  glorified  and 
stimulated  ''selling  talk,"  framed  to  sell  good 
will  between  the  nations  that  now  propose' 
to  carry  war  to  shop  and  mill  and  mine. 

"But,"  as  a  celebrated  British  economist 
said  to  me  in  London,  "while  all  this  talk 
of  Economic  Alliance  sounds  well  and  is 
serving  its  purpose,  the  fact  must  not  be 
overlooked  that,  though  war  ends,  business 
keeps  right  on.  Self-interest  will  dictate  the 
policy  that  pays  the  best."  This  is  a  typical 
comment. 

Now  we  get  to  the  meat  of  the  matter: 
By  the  terms  of  the  pact  half  a  dozen  im- 
portant nations — to  say  nothing  of  the 
smaller  fry — are  bound  to  a  hard-and-fast 
trade  agreement.  Business,  in  brief,  is  pro- 
jected in  terms  of  nations. 

Go  behind  this  new  battle  front  and  you 
will  find  that  it  conflicts  with  an  uncompro- 
mising commercial  rule.  Why?  Simply  be- 
cause, so  far  as  business  is  concerned,  na- 
tions may  propose,  but  human  beings  dis- 
pose. Individuals,  not  countries,  do  busi- 
ness!    Being  human,  these  individuals  are 


32  The  War  After  the  War 

apt  to  follow  the  line  of  least  resistance. 
Hence,  the  best-laid  plans  for  imposing  in- 
ternational industrial  teamwork  are  likely 
to  founder  on  those  weaknesses  of  human 
nature  that  begin  and  end  in  the  pocket- 
book. 

After  the  Franco-Prussian  War  of  1870- 
71,  and  while  the  Peace  of  Versailles  was 
being  negotiated,  commercial  travellers  of 
each  nation,  laden  with  samples,  filled  the 
border  villages,  ready  to  dash  across  the 
frontier  and  open  accounts.  Of  course  no 
one  dreams  that  such  history  will  repeat  it- 
self after  the  present  war;  but  there  are 
many  persons  in  England  and  France  to-day 
who  contend  that  the  business  needs  of  peace 
will  be  stronger  than  the  costly  hang-over  of 
wartime  passions. 

Trade,  after  all,  is  a  Colossus  that  rests 
with  one  foot  upon  Necessity  and  the  other 
foot  upon  Convenience. 

Will  the  Allies  be  such  valued  commercial 
helpmates  to  each  other?  Perhaps  not. 
When  this  war  is  over  the  fighting  countries 
will  be  impoverished  by  years  of  drain  and 
waste.  As  a  result,  they  will  be  poorer  cus- 
tomers for  each  other,  but  very  sharp  com- 


The  Coming  War  33 

petitors.  International  trade  is  merely  an 
exchange  of  goods  for  goods.  You  cannot 
sell  without  buying,  and  vice  versa.  No 
groups  of  nations  can  live  by  taking  in  each 
other's  washing.  They  are  bound  to  get 
outside  linen.  When  peace  comes  we  shall 
have  the  lending  and  purchasing  power  of 
the  world.  Can  anybody  afford  to  shut  us 
out? 

Again:  Can  the  Allies  present  a  united 
front  or  carry  on  a  uniform  line  of  conduct? 
Will  not  their  interests  overlap  and  cause 
an  inevitable  conflict,  even  when  intentions 
are  of  the  very  best? 

France,  for  example,  competes  with  Eng- 
land in  chemicals,  surgical  instruments,  high- 
speed tools,  scores  of  things;  Russia's  com- 
petitors in  wheat  are  not  Germany,  but  Can- 
ada, India  and  Australia;  Italy  and  France 
are  rivals  for  the  same  wine  markets.  Rus- 
sia for  years  has  kept  down  the  high  cost 
of  her  living  by  buying  cheap  German  goods 
at  her  front  door  and  having  her  projects 
financed  by  German  capital.  Will  she  face 
bankruptcy  by  going  hundreds — even  thou- 
sands— of  miles  out  of  her  way  and  paying 
more  for  products?    England  for  years  has 


34  The  War  After  the  War 

made  huge  profits  out  of  the  re-export  of 
Teutonic  articles,  thanks  to  the  grace  of  free 
trade  and  huge  carrying  power.  Is  she 
Hkely  to  forego  all  this? 

In  the  last  analysis  Propinquity  and  the 
Purse  are  the  Mothers  of  Trade  Alliance. 

Finally,  will  not  any  organised  exclusion 
of  German  products,  coupled  with  a  definite 
and  organised  campaign  to  throttle  German 
trade  the  world  over,  throw  the  business  of 
the  Kaiser's  country  smack  into  the  lap  of 
the  United  States?  Sober  reflection  over 
these  possibilities  may  stay  economic  re- 
prisal. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  many  ways 
by  which  even  a  near  translation  of  the  eco- 
nomic pact  into  actuality  may  work  hardship 
— even  disaster — to  American  commercial 
interests.  No  matter  which  way  we  turn 
when  peace  comes  we  shall  face  the  prover- 
bial millstones  in  the  shape  of  two  great  al- 
liances. One  is  the  Allied  Group,  jealous  of 
our  new  wealth  and  world  power,  bitter  with 
the  belief  that  we  have  coined  gold  out  of 
agony;  the  other  is  the  Teutonic  Union, 
smarting  because  of  our  aid  to  its  enemies, 


The  Coming  War  35 

stinging  under  reverses,  mad  with  a  desire 
to  recuperate. 

Examine  our  trade  relations  with  warring 
Europe  and  you  see  how  hazardous  a  shift 
in  old-time  relations  would  be.  To  the  fight- 
ing peoples  and  their  colonies  in  normal 
times  we  send  nearly  seventy-eight  per  cent 
of  our  exports,  and  from  them  we  derive 
seventy  per  cent  of  our  exports.  The  Al- 
lies alone,  principally  England  and  her  col- 
onies, get  sixty-three  per  cent  of  these  ex- 
ports and  send  us  fifty-four  per  cent  of  all 
we  get  from  foreign  lands. 

As  the  National  Foreign-Trade  Council 
of  the  United  States  points  out:  "Any 
sweeping  change  of  tariff,  navigation  or 
financial  policy  on  the  part  of  either  group 
of  the  Allies,  and  particularly  on  the  part 
of  the  Entente  Allies,  may  seriously  affect 
the  domestic  prosperity  of  the  United  States, 
in  which  foreign  trade  is  a  vital  element." 

Why  is  this  foreign  trade  so  vital?  Be- 
cause, during  these  last  two  years  of  world 
upheaval  we  have  rolled  up  the  immense 
favourable  trade  balance  of  over  three  bil- 
lion dollars.  In  peace  time  this  would  be 
paid    for    in    merchandise.      But    fighting 


36 


The  War  After  the  War 


Europe's  industries,  with  the  exception  of  a 
part  of  England's,  are  mobilised  for  muni- 
tions. Therefore,  these  goods  have  been 
paid  for  largely  in  gold. 

This  gold  is  now  part  of  our  basis  of 
credit.  When  the  war  ends  Europe  will 
make  every  effort  that  ingenuity,  backed  up 
by  trade  resource,  can  devise  to  get  that  gold 
back.  One  way  is  through  loans  from  us; 
the  other  is  by  exports  to  us.  Now  you  see 
w^hy  W'C  must  maintain  our  foreign  com- 
merce. 

Our  huge  gold  reserve  hides  another  men- 
ace: The  war  demands  for  our  commodi- 
ties, paid  for  with  the  yellow  metal,  have 
increased  the  cost  of  production ;  and  it  will 
stay  up.  This  will  lead  to  an  unequal  com- 
petition with  the  cheap  labour  markets  of 
Europe  when  the  war  is  over.  Both  groups 
of  Allies  will  be  able  to  undersell  us. 

Turn  to  the  raw  materials  and  you  en- 
counter a  further  danger  in  the  economic 
pact.  If  the  Allies  develop  their  own 
sources,  it  will  cut  down  our  export  of 
cotton,  copper  and  oil.  If  they  cannot  de- 
velop sufficient  sources  for  self -supply  they 
may,   through  co-operative  buying  outside 


The  Coming  War  37 

their  dominions,  satisfy  their  needs.  In 
the  third  place,  they  may  stimulate,  through 
tariff  or  shipping  concessions,  or  by  subsi- 
dies— which  are  much  talked  of  in  Europe 
to-day — a  preference  for  their  own  manu- 
factures over  American  products  in  both 
allied  and  neutral  markets. 

Take  navigation:  England  controls  an 
immense  shipping.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  out- 
side the  three-mile  limit,  she  practically  owns 
the  waters  of  the  world.  If  she  makes  lower 
rates  for  her  allies,  or  others  to  whom  she 
gives  preference,  where  shall  we  be  in  our 
chronic  and  unpardonable  dependence  upon 
foreign  bottoms?  Here  is  where  we  shall 
pay  the  price  for  neglecting  our  merchant 
marine. 

Still  another  menace  to  our  trade  lies  in 
preferential  alliances  between  Mother  Coun- 
tries and  their  colonies,  which  is  part  of  the 
projected  programme.  Our  next-door  neigh- 
bour, Canada,  has  just  given  an  illuminating 
instance  of  what  may  be  in  store  for  us. 
A  Co-operative  Export  Association  has  been 
formed  in  the  Dominion  to  get  business 
throughout  the  British  Empire  and  the  other 
allied  nations.     In  the  circular  announcing 


38  The  War  After  the  War 

its  organisation  it  declares  that  "the  prod- 
ucts of  Canada  will  be  preferred  against  the 
products  of  her  great  neutral  competitor,  the 
United  States,  who  has  stayed  outside  of 
the  war  and  has  borne  no  sacrifice  of  life 
and  money  made  by  the  allied  countries." 

Return  to  the  economic  pact  again  and  you 
find  that  it  continues  to  bristle  with  danger- 
ous possibilities  for  us.  You  will  recall  that 
one  of  the  clauses  forbids  the  resumption 
of  a  favoured-nation  arrangement  with 
enemy  countries  for  a  period  "to  be  fixed 
by  mutual  agreement."  This  may  be  for 
an  indefinite  time. 

Now  the  danger  here  lies  in  the  European 
interpretation  of  the  favoured-nation  idea. 
To  quote  an  authority:  "Most  of  these 
countries  have  treaties  under  w^hich  each 
must  grant  most-favoured-nation  treatment 
to  the  other;  and  this  means  that  a  reduc- 
tion in  duties  granted  to  one  country  is  auto- 
matically extended  to  all  other  countries  with 
whom  such  treaties  exist.  The  result  is 
that  the  lowest  rate  in  any  treaty  becomes, 
with  exception,  the  rate  extended  to  all  coun- 
tries." 
We  have  the  favoured-nation  relation  with 


The  Coming  War  39. 

many  European  countries,  and  herein  lies 
the  possible  danger :  The  war  automatically 
annulled  all  treaties  between  belligerents. 
When  the  day  of  treaty  making  comes  again 
shall  we  suffer  for  the  sins  of  friend  and 
foe  in  the  rearrangement  of  international 
trade  and  lose  some  precious  commercial 
privileges?     It  is  worth  thinking  about. 


II — England  Awake 


MEANTIME,    regardless   of   how 
the    economic    pact   works   out, 
England's  policy  is  "Deeds,  not 
Words,"  as  she  prepares  for  the 
time  when  normal  life  and  business  succeed 
the  strain  and  frenzy  of  fighting  days. 

No  man  can  range  up  and  down  the  Brit- 
ish Isles  to-day  without  catching  the  thrill 
of  a  galvanic  awakening,  or  feeling  an  im- 
perial heartbeat  that  proclaims  a  people 
roused  and  alive  to  what  the  future  holds  and 
means.  The  kingdom  is  a  mighty  crucible 
out  of  which  will  emerge  a  new  England 
determined  to  come  back  to  her  old  indus- 
trial authority.  It  is  with  England  that  our 
commerce  must  reckon ;  it  is  English  compe- 
tition that  will  grapple  with  Yankee  enter- 
prise wherever  the  trade  winds  blow. 

There  are  many  reasons  why.  "For  Eng- 
land," as  one  man  has  put  it,  "victory  must 
mean  prosperity.  However  triumphant  she 
may  be  in  arms,  her  future  lies  in  a  pre- 
eminence in  world  industries.     Through  it 

40 


England  Awake  41 

she  will  rise  as  an  empire  or  sink  to  a  second- 
rate  nation." 

In  the  second  place,  as  all  hope  of  indem- 
nity fades,  England  realises  that  she  will 
not  only  have  to  pay  all  her  own  bills  but 
likewise  some  of  the  bills  of  her  allies.  Al- 
ready her  millions  have  been  poured  into  the 
allied  defence ;  many  more  must  follow. 

Hence,  the  relentless  energy  of  her  throb- 
bing mills;  the  searching  appraisal  of  her  re- 
sources ;  the  marshalling  of  all  her  genius  of 
trade  conquest.  Dominating  all  this  is  the 
kindling  idea  of  a  self-contained  empire, 
linked  with  the  slogan :  "Home  Patronage 
of  Home  Product."  The  war  found  her  un- 
prepared to  fight;  she  is  determined  that 
peace  shall  see  her  fit  for  economic  battle. 

This  is  what  she  is  doing  and  every  act 
has  a  meaning  all  its  own  for  us.  Take  In- 
dustry: Forty-eight  hundred  government- 
controlled  factories,  working  day  and  night, 
are  sending  out  a  ceaseless  flood  of  war  sup- 
plies. The  old  bars  of  restricted  output  are 
down;  the  old  sex  discrimination  has  faded 
away.  Women  are  doing  men's  work,  get- 
ting men's  pay,  making  themselves  useful 
and  necessary  cogs  in  the  productive  ma- 


42  The  War  After  the  War 

chine.  They  will  neither  quit  nor  lose  their 
cunning  when  peace  comes. 

I  have  watched  the  inspiring  spectacle 
of  some  of  these  factories,  have  walked 
through  their  forest  of  American-made 
automatics,  heard  the  hum  of  American  tools 
as  they  pounded  and  drilled  and  ground  the 
instruments  of  death.  What  does  it  signify  ? 
This:  that  quantity  output  of  shot  and 
shell  for  war  means  quantity  output  of  mo- 
tors and  many  other  products  for  peace. 
You  may  say  that  quantity  output  is  a  mat- 
ter of  temperament  and  that  the  British  na- 
ture cannot  be  adapted  to  it ;  but  speeded-up 
munitions  making  has  proved  the  contrary. 
The  British  workman  has  learned  to  his 
profit  that  it  pays  to  step  lively.  High  war 
wages  have  accustomed  him  to  luxuries  he 
never  enjoyed  before,  and  he  will  not  give 
them  up.  Unrestricted  output  has  come  to 
stay. 

Five  years  ago  the  efficiency  expert  was 
regarded  in  England  as  an  intruder  and  a 
quack;  to  use  a  stop  watch  on  production 
was  high  crime  and  treason.  To-day  there 
are  thousands  of  students  of  business  science 
and  factory  management.     In  the  spinning 


England  Awake  43 

district  girls  in  clogs  sit  alongside  their  fore- 
men listening  to  lectures  on  how  to  save 
time  and  energy  in  work.  Scores  of  old  es- 
tablishments are  being  reborn  productively. 
There  is  the  case  of  a  famous  chocolate 
works  that  before  the  war  rebuffed  an  in- 
structor in  factory  reorganisation.  Last 
year  it  saw  the  light,  hired  an  American 
expert,  and  to-day  the  output  has  been  in- 
creased by  twenty-five  per  cent. 

The  infant  industries,  growing  out  of  the 
needs  of  war  and  the  desire  of  self-suffi- 
ciency, are  resting  on  the  foundations  of  the 
new  creed.  "Speed  up!"  is  the  industrial 
cry,  and  with  it  goes  a  whole  new  scheme 
of  national  industrial  education.  The  Brit- 
ish youth  will  be  taught  a  trade  almost  with 
his  A-B-Cs. 

Formerly  in  England  the  standardisation 
of  plan  and  product  was  almost  unknown. 
For  example,  no  matter  how  closely  ships 
resembled  each  other  in  tonnage,  structure 
or  design,  a  separate  drawing  was  made 
for  each.  Now  on  the  Clyde  the  same  specifi- 
cations serve  for  twenty  vessels.  England 
has  gone  into  the  wholesale  production ;  and 
what  is  true  of  ships  in  the  stress  of  hungry 


44  The  War  After  the  War 

war  demand  will  be  true  of  scores  of  articles 
for  trade  afterward.  The  old  rule-of -thumb 
traditions  that  hampered  expansion  have 
gone  into  the  discard,  along  with  voluntary 
military  service  and  the  fetish  of  free  trade. 

Typical  of  the  new  methods  is  the  stand- 
ardisation of  exports,  which  have  increased 
steadily  during  the  past  year.  In  a  room  of 
the  Building  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  down 
in  Whitehall,  and  where  the  whole  trade 
strategy  of  the  war  is  worked  out,  I  saw  a 
significant  diagram,  streaked  with  purple 
and  red  lines,  which  shows  the  way  it  is  done. 
The  purple  indicated  the  rosters  of  the  great 
industries;  the  red,  the  number  of  men  re- 
cruited from  them  for  military  service.  No 
matter  how  the  battle  lines  yearn  for  men, 
the  workers  in  the  factories  that  send  goods 
across  the  sea  are  kept  at  their  task.  This 
diagram  is  the  barometer.  For  exports  keep 
up  the  rate  of  exchange  and  husband  gold. 

England  is  creating  a  whole  new  line  of 
industrial  defence.  The  manufacture  of 
dyestuffs  will  illustrate:  This  process, 
which  originated  in  England,  was  permitted 
to  pass  to  the  Germans,  who  practically  got 
a  world  monopoly  in  it.      Now  England  is 


England  Awake  45 

determined  that  this  and  similar  dependence 
must  cease. 

For  dyemaking  she  has  established  a  sys- 
tematic co-operation  among  state,  education 
and  trade.  In  the  University  of  Leeds  a 
department  in  colour  chemistry  and  dyeing 
has  been  established,  to  make  researches  and 
to  give  special  facilities  to  firms  entering  the 
industry,  all  in  the  national  interest.  A 
huge,  subsidised  mother  concern,  known  as 
British  Dyes,  Limited,  has  been  formed,  and 
it  will  take  the  place  of  the  great  dye  trust 
of  Germany,  in  which  the  government  was 
a  partner. 

This  procedure  is  being  repeated  in  the 
launching  of  an  optical-glass  industry;  this 
trade  has  also  been  in  Teutonic  hands.  I 
could  cite  many  other  instances,  but  these 
will  show  the  new  spirit  of  British  commer- 
cial enterprise  and  protection. 

Everywhere  nationalisation  is  the  keynote 
of  trade  activity.  Coal  furnishes  an  in- 
stance: The  collieries  of  the  kingdom  not 
only  stoke  the  fires  of  myriad  furnaces  but 
drive  the  ships  of  a  mighty  marine. 
Through  her  control  of  coal  England  has 
one  whip  hand  over  her  allies,  for  many  of 


46  The  War  After  the  War 

the  French  mines  are  in  the  occupied  dis- 
tricts, and  Italy's  supply  from  Germany  has 
stopped.  Coal  means  life  in  war  or  peace. 
Now  England  proposes  a  state  control  of 
coal  similar  to  that  of  railroads. 

It  spells  fresh  power  over  the  neutral 
shipping  that  coals  at  British  ports.  If  the 
government  controls  the  coal  it  will  be  in  a 
position  to  stipulate  the  use  that  the  con- 
sumer shall  make  of  it,  and  require  him  to 
call  for  his  return  cargo  at  specified  ports. 
Such  supervision  in  war  may  mean  similar 
domination  in  peace — another  bulwark  for 
British  control  of  the  sea. 

Throughout  England  all  trade  facilities 
are  being  broadened  and  bettered.  The  local 
Chambers  of  Commerce,  whose  chief  func- 
tion for  years  was  solemnly  to  pass  resolu- 
tions, have  stirred  out  of  their  slumbers. 
The  Birmingham  body  has  formed  a  House 
of  Commerce  to  stimulate  and  develop  the 
commerce  of  the  capital  of  the  Midlands. 

This  stimulation  at  home  is  accompanied 
by  a  programme  of  trade  extension  abroad. 
The  Board  of  Trade  has  granted  a  licence 
to  the  Latin- American  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce  in   Great   Britain,    formed   to   pro- 


England  Awake  47 

mote  British  trade  in  Central  and  South 
America  and  Mexico.  Sections  of  the  cham- 
ber are  being  organised  for  each  of  the  im- 
portant trades  and  industries  in  the  king- 
dom, and  committees  named  to  enter  into 
negotiations  with  every  one  of  the  Latin- 
American  republics,  where  offices  will  be 
established  in  all  important  towns. 

The  Board  of  Trade  has  also  learned  the 
lesson  of  co-operation  for  foreign  trade.  As 
one  result,  British  syndicates,  composed  of 
small  manufacturers,  who  share  the  over- 
head cost,  are  forming  to  open  up  new  mar- 
kets the  world  over.  These  syndicates  cor- 
respond with  the  familiar  German  Cartel, 
which  did  so  much  to  plant  German  products 
wherever  the  sun  shone. 

England,  too,  has  wiped  out  one  other 
block  to  her  trade  expansion:  For  years 
many  of  her  consuls  were  naturalised  Ger- 
mans. Many  of  them  were  trustworthy  pub- 
lic servants.  Others,  true  to  the  promptings 
of  birth,  diverted  trade  to  their  Fatherland. 
To-day  the  Consular  Service  is  purged  of 
Teutonic  blood.  It  is  one  more  evidence  of 
the  gospel  of  "England  for  the  English !" 

All  this  new  trade  expansion  cannot  be 


48  Tlie  War  After  the  War 

achieved  without  the  real  sinew  of  war, 
which  is  capital.  Here,  too,  England  is 
awake  to  the  emergency.  Typical  of  her 
plan  of  campaign  is  the  projected  British 
Trade  Bank,  which  will  provide  facilities 
for  oversea  commercial  development,  and 
which  will  not  conflict  with  the  work  ordi- 
narily done  by  the  joint-stock,  colonial  and 
British  foreign  banks.  It  will  do  for  Brit- 
ish foreign  trade  what  the  huge  German 
combinations  of  capital  did  so  long  and  so 
effectively  for  Teuton  commerce.  Further- 
more, it  will  make  a  close  corporation  of 
finance  and  trade,  with  the  government  sit- 
ting in  the  board  of  directors  and  lending 
all  the  aid  that  imperial  support  can  bestow. 
The  bank  will  be  capitalised  at  fifty  mil- 
lion dollars.  It  will  not  accept  deposits  sub- 
ject to  call  at  short  notice,  which  means  con- 
stant mobilisation  of  resources;  it  will  open 
accounts  only  with  those  who  propose  to 
make  use  of  its  oversea  machinery;  it  will 
specialise  in  credits  for  clients  abroad,  and 
it  will  become  the  centre  of  syndicate  oper- 
ations. One  of  its  chief  purposes,  I  might 
add,  w^ll  be  to  enable  the  British  manufac- 
turer and  exporter  to  assume  profitably  the 


England  Awake  49 

long  credits  so  much  desired  in  foreign 
trade. 

From  the  confidential  report  of  its  organi- 
sation let  me  quote  one  illuminating  para- 
graph which  is  full  of  suggestion  for  Amer- 
ican banking,  for  it  shows  the  new  idea  of 
British  preparedness  for  world  business. 
Here  it  is: 

''Nearly  as  important  as  the  Board  w^ould 
be  the  General  Staff.  It  is  fair  to  assume 
that  women  will  in  the  future  take  a  con- 
siderable share  in  purely  clerical  work,  and 
this  fact  will  enable  the  institution  to  take 
fuller  advantage  of  the  qualifications  of  its 
male  staff  to  push  its  affairs  in  every  quar- 
ter of  the  globe.  Youths  should  not  be  en- 
gaged without  a  language  qualification,  and 
after  a  few  years'  training  they  should  be 
sent  abroad.  It  could  probably  be  arranged 
that  associated  banks  abroad  would  agree  to 
employ  at  each  of  their  principal  branches 
one  of  the  Institution's  clerks,  not  neces- 
sarily to  remain  there  for  an  indefinite  peri- 
od, but  to  get  a  knowledge  of  the  trade  and 
characteristics  of  the  country.  Such  clerks 
might  in  many  cases  sever  their  connection 
with  the  banks  to  which  they  were  appointed 


50  The  War  After  the  War 

and  start  in  business  on  their  own  account. 
They  would,  however,  probably  look  upon 
the  institution  as  their  'Alma  Mater.' 
Every  endeavour  should  be  made  to  promote 
esprit  de  corps;  and  where  exceptional  abil- 
ity is  developed  it  should  be  ungrudgingly 
rewarded.  If  industry  is  to  be  extended  it 
is  essential  that  British  products  should  be 
pushed;  and  manufacturers,  merchants  and 
bankers  must  combine  to  push  them.  It  is 
believed  that  this  pushing  could  be  assisted 
by  the  creation  of  a  body  of  young  business 
men  in  the  way  above  described." 

The  scope  and  purpose  of  this  British 
Trade  Bank  suggest  another  East  India 
Company  with  all  the  possibilities  of  gold 
and  glory  which  attended  that  romantic 
eighteenth-century  enterprise.  Perhaps  an- 
other Clive  or  a  second  Hastings  is  some- 
where in  the  making. 

That  the  British  Government  proposes  to 
follow  the  German  lead  and  definitely  go  into 
business — thus  reversing  its  tradition  of 
aloofness  from  financial  enterprise — is 
shown  in  the  new  British  and  Italian  Cor- 
poration, formed  to  establish  close  economic 
relations   between    Britain   and   Italy.      It 


England  Awake  51 

starts  a  whole  era  in  British  banking,  for 
it  means  the  subsidising  of  a  private  under- 
taking out  of  national  funds. 

It  embodies  a  meaning  that  goes  deeper 
and  travels  much  farther  than  this.  Up  to 
the  outbreak  of  the  great  war  Germany- 
was  the  banker  of  Italy.  Cities  like  Milan 
and  Rome  were  almost  completely  in  the 
grip  of  the  Teutonic  lender,  and  his  country 
cashed  in  strong  on  this  surest  and  hardest 
of  all  dominations.  This  was  the  one  big 
reason  why  the  Italian  declaration  of  war 
against  Germany  was  so  long  delayed.  With 
this  new  banking  corporation  England  not 
only  supplants  the  German  influence  but 
forges  the  economic  irons  that  will  bind 
Italy  to  her. 

The  capital  of  the  British  and  Italian  Cor- 
poration is  nominally  only  five  million  dol- 
lars. The  government,  however,  agrees  to 
contribute  during  each  of  the  first  ten  years 
of  its  existence  the  sum  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars.  Though  imperial 
stimulation  of  trade  is  one  of  its  main  ob- 
jects, this  institution  is  not  without  its  larger 
political  value.  As  this  and  many  other  sim- 
ilar   enterprises    show,   politics   and   world 


52  The  War  After  the  War 

trade,  so  far  as  Great  Britain  is  concerned, 
will  hereafter  be  closely  interwoven. 

Throughout  all  this  British  organisation 
runs  the  increasing  purpose  of  an  Empire 
Self-Contained.  Whether  that  phase  of  the 
Paris  Pact  which  calls  for  development  and 
mobilisation  of  natural  resources  sees  the 
light  of  reality  or  not,  Britain  is  determined 
to  take  no  chances  for  her  own.  She  is 
scouring  and  searching  the  world  for  new 
fields  and  new  supplies.  She  is  planning  to 
increase  her  tea  and  coffee  growing  in 
Ceylon  and  make  cotton  plantations  of  huge 
tracts  in  India  and  Africa.  The  control  of 
the  metal  fields  of  Australia  has  reverted  to 
her  hands ;  she  will  get  tungsten  and  oil  from 
Burma.  It  took  the  war  to  make  her  real- 
ise that,  with  the  exception  of  the  United 
States,  Cuba  and  Hawaii,  all  the  sugar-cane 
areas  of  the  world  are  within  the  imperial 
confines.  They  will  now  become  part  of  the 
Empire  of  Self-Supply.  Even  a  partial  car- 
rying out  of  this  far-flung  plan  is  bound 
seriously  to  affect  our  whole  export  busi- 
ness. 

You  have  seen  how  this  self-contained 
idea  may  work  abroad.      Go  back  to  Eng- 


England  Awake  53 

land  and  you  find  it  forecasting  an  agricul- 
tural revolution  that  may  be  one  of  the 
after-war  miracles. 

For  many  years  England  has  raised  about 
twenty  per  cent  of  her  wheat  supplies.  One 
reason  was  her  dependence  on  grass  instead 
of  arable  land;  another  was  the  inherent  ob- 
jection of  the  British  farmer  to  adopt  scien- 
tific methods  of  soil  cultivation  or  engage  in 
co-operative  marketing.  The  old  way  was 
the  best  way;  he  wanted  to  go  "on  his 
own." 

The  war  has  opened  his  eyes,  and  like- 
wise the  eyes  and  purse  of  the  ultimate  con- 
sumer. Denmark  did  some  of  this  awaken- 
ing. England  depended  upon  her  for  enor- 
mous supplies  of  bacon,  cheese,  butter  and 
eggs.  When  the  war  broke  out  and  the  ring 
of  steel  hemmed  Germany  in,  the  specula- 
tive prices  offered  by  the  Fatherland  were 
too  much  for  the  little  domain.  Holland 
also  ''let  down"  her  old  customer,  poured 
her  food  into  Germany,  and  fattened  on  im- 
mense profits.  Norway  and  Sweden,  which 
were  also  important  sources  of  more  or  less 
perishable  British  food  supplies,  have  done 
the  same  thing.     When  peace  comes  you 


54  The  War  After  the  War 

may  be  sure  that  England  will  have  a  reck- 
oning. 

This  scarcity  of  food,  coupled  with  the 
incessant  sinking  of  supply  ships  by  enemy 
submarines,  the  rigid  censorship  of  imports, 
and  all  those  other  factors  that  bring  about 
the  high  cost  of  war,  has  made  the  English- 
man sit  up  and  take  notice  of  his  agricultural 
plight. 

"We  must  grow  more  of  our  food,"  is  the 
new  determination.  To  achieve  it  plans  for 
collective  marketing,  for  intensive  farming, 
for  co-operative  land-credit  banks,  are  being 
made.  The  gentleman  farmer  will  become 
a  working  farmer. 

England's  gospel  of  self-sufficiency  has  a 
significance  for  us  that  extends  far  beyond 
her  growing  independence  in  foodstuffs  and 
raw  materials.  It  is  fashioning  a  weapon 
aimed  straight  at  the  heart  of  our  overseas 
industrial  development. 

Most  people  who  read  the  newspapers 
know  that  many  articles  of  American  make, 
ranging  from  bathtubs  to  motor  cars,  have 
been  excluded  from  England.  The  reasons 
for  this — which  are  all  logical — are  the  ne- 
cessity for  cutting  down  imports  to  protect 


England  Awake  55 

the  trade  balance  and  keep  the  gold  at  home ; 
the  need  of  ship  tonnage  for  food  and  war 
supplies ;  and  the  campaign  to  curtail  luxury. 

Admirable  as  are  these  reasons,  there  is 
a  growing  feeling  among  Americans  doing 
business  in  England  that  this  wartime  pro- 
hibition, which  is  part  of  the  programme  of 
military  necessity,  is  the  prelude  to  a  more 
permanent,  if  less  drastic,  exclusion  when 
peace  comes. 

Habit  is  strong  with  Englishmen,  and  the 
shrewd  insular  manufacturer  has  been  quick 
to  see  the  opportunities  for  advancement 
that  lie  in  this  closed-door  campaign. 

*'Get  the  consumer  out  of  the  habit  of  us- 
ing a  certain  American  product  during  the 
war,"  he  argues,  "and  when  the  war  is  over 
— even  before — he  will  be  a  good  'prospect' 
for  the  English  substitute." 

Here  is  a  concrete  story  that  will  illustrate 
how  the  exclusion  works  and  what  lies  be- 
hind: 

Last  summer  a  certain  well-known  Amer- 
ican machine,  whose  gross  annual  business 
in  Great  Britain  alone  amounts  to  more  than 
half  a  million  dollars  a  year,  was  suddenly 
denied  entrance  into  the  kingdom.     When 


56  The  War  After  the  War 

the  manag-ing  director  protested  that  it  was 
a  necessity  in  hundreds  of  British  ships  he 
was  told  that  it  made  no  difference. 

*'But  what  are  the  reasons  for  exclusion?" 
he  asked. 

"We  don't  want  English  money  to  go  out 
of  England,"  was  the  reply. 

''Then  we  shall  not  only  bank  all  our  re- 
ceipts here  but  will  bring  over  one  hundred 
thousand  pounds  more,"  came  from  the  di- 
rector. 

It  had  no  effect. 

"Is  it  tonnage?"  was  the  next  query. 

''Yes,"  said  the  official. 

"Then  we  shall  ship  machines  in  our  pres- 
ident's yacht,"  was  the  ready  response. 

This  staggered  the  official.  After  a  long 
discussion  the  director  received  permission 
to  bring  in  what  machines  were  on  the  way; 
and,  also,  he  got  a  date  for  a  second  hearing. 

Meantime  he  adapted  a  type  of  machine 
to  the  needs  of  a  certain  department  in  the 
Board  of  Trade,  sold  two,  and  got  them 
installed  and  working  before  he  next  ap- 
peared before  the  Trade  Censors,  who,  by 
the  way,  knew  absolutely  nothing  at  all  about 


England  Awake  57 

the  article  they  were  prohibiting.  The  first 
question  popped  to  him  was : 

"Are  machines  Hke  yours  made  in  Eng- 
land?" 

"Yes,"  replied  the  director ;  ''but  they  have 
never  been  practical  or  commercial." 

Then  he  produced  the  record  of  the  ma- 
chines he  had  sold  to  the  government.  Each 
one  saved  the  labour  of  eight  persons  and 
considerable  office  space.  This  made  a  dis- 
tinct impression  and  the  company  got  per- 
mission to  import  two  hundred  tons  of  their 
product.  But  not  even  an  application  for 
more  can  be  filed  until  the  first  of  next  year. 
Only  the  dire  necessity  for  this  article, 
coupled  with  the  fact  that  it  is  without  Brit- 
ish competition,  got  it  over. 

I  cite  this  incident  to  show  what  many 
Americans  in  England  believe  to  be  one  of 
the  real  reasons  behind  the  prohibition, 
which,  summed  up,  is  simply  this :  England 
is  trying  to  keep  out  everything  that  com- 
petes with  anything  that  is  made  in  Eng- 
land or  that  can  be  made  in  England ! 

For  some  time  after  the  war  began  our 
motor  cars  went  in  free.  Then  followed  an 
ad-valorem  duty  of  thirty- three  and  a  third 


58  The  War  After  the  War 

per  cent.  Despite  this  handicap,  agents  were 
able  to  sell  American  machines,  which  were 
both  popular  and  serviceable.  The  tariff 
was  imposed  ostensibly  to  cut  down  imports, 
but  mainly  to  please  the  British  motor  manu- 
facturers, who  claimed  that  the  surrender 
of  their  factories  to  the  g-overnment  for  mak- 
ing munitions  left  the  automobile  market 
at  the  mercy  of  the  American  product,  which 
meant  loss  of  goodwill. 

Subsequently  a  complete  embargo  was 
placed  on  the  entry  of  American  pleasure 
cars  and  the  business  practically  came  to  a 
standstill.  What  is  the  result?  Let  the 
agent  of  a  well-known  popular-priced  Amer- 
ican car  tell  his  story. 

"Before  the  war  and  up  to  the  time  of  the 
embargo,"  he  said,  "I  was  selling  a  good 
many  American  automobiles.  With  the  em- 
bargo on  cars  also  came  a  prohibition  of 
spare  parts.  It  was  absolutely  impossible 
to  get  any  into  the  country.  ]\Iany  of  my 
customers  wanted  replacements,  and,  when 
I  could  not  furnish  them,  they  abandoned  the 
cars  I  sold  them  and  bought  English-made 
machines  whose  parts  could  be  replaced." 

All  through  the  motor  business  in  Eng- 


England  Awake  59 

land  I  found  a  strong  disposition  on  the  part 
of  the  British  manufacturer  and  dealer  to 
create  a  market  for  his  own  car  as  soon  as 
the  war  is  over.  Some  even  talked  of  a 
large  output  of  low-priced  machines  to  meet 
the  competition  of  the  familiar  car  that  put 
the  automobile  joke  on  the  map.  The  only- 
American  comeback  to  this  growing  preju- 
dice is  to  build  factories  or  assembling  plants 
within  the  British  Isles.  This  will  save  ex- 
cessive freight  rates,  keep  down  the  costly 
tariff  ''overhead,"  and  get  the  benefit  of  all 
the  goodwill  accruing  from  the  employment 
of  British  labour. 

A  by-product  of  British  exclusion  is  the 
inauguration  of  a  Made-in-England  cam- 
paign. Buy  a  hat  in  Regent  Street  or  Ox- 
ford Street  and  you  see  stamped  on  the  in- 
side band  the  words,  ''British  Manufacture." 
This  English  crusade  is  more  likely  to  suc- 
ceed than  our  Made-in-U.S.A.  attempt,  for 
the  simple  reason  that  the  government  is 
squarely  behind  it. 

This  same  spirit  dominates  newspaper 
publicity.  You  find  a  British  fountain  pen 
glowingly  proclaimed  in  a  big  display  ad- 
vertisement, illustrated  with  the  picture  of 


60  The  War  After  the  War 

men  trundling  boxes  of  gold  down  to  a  wait- 
ing steamer.    Alongside  are  these  words : 

"The  man  who  buys  a  foreign-made  foun- 
tain pen  is  paying  away  gold,  even  if  the 
money  he  hands  across  the  counter  is  a 
Treasury  note.  The  British  shop  may  get 
the  paper;  the  foreign  manufacturer  gets 
gold  for  all  the  pens  he  sends  over  here. 
What  is  the  sense  of  carrying  an  empty 
sovereign-purse  in  one  pocket  if  you  put  a 
foreign-made  fountain  pen  in  another?" 

Behind  all  this  British  exclusion  is  an  old 
prejudice  against  our  wares.  There  has 
never  been  any  secret  about  it.  I  found  a 
large  body  of  opinion  headed  by  brilliant 
men  who  have  bidden  farewell  to  the  Hands- 
Across-the-Sea  sentiment;  who  have  little 
faith  in  the  theory  that  blood  is  thicker  than 
water  when  it  comes  to  a  keen  commercial 
clash. 

What  of  the  human  element  behind  the 
whole  British  awakening?  Will  organised 
labour,  an  ancient  sore  on  the  British  body, 
rise  up  and  complicate  these  well-laid 
schemes  for  economic  expansion?  As  with 
the  question  of  practicability  of  the  Paris 
Pact,  there  is  a  wide  difference  of  opinion. 


England  Awake  61 

On  one  hand,  you  find  the  air  full  of  the 
menace  of  post-war  unemployment  and  the 
problem  of  replacing-  the  woman  worker  by 
the  man  who  went  away  to  fight.  To  off- 
set this,  however,  there  will  be  the  un- 
doubted scarcity  of  male  help  due  to  battle 
or  disease,  and  the  inevitable  emigration  of 
the  soldier,  desirous  of  a  free  and  open  life, 
to  the  Colonies. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  the  convic- 
tion that  unrestricted  output,  having  regis- 
tered its  golden  returns,  will  be  the  rule,  not 
the  exception,  among  the  English  artisans. 
England's  frenzied  desire  for  economic  au- 
thority proclaims  a  job  for  everybody. 

I  asked  a  member  of  the  British  Cabinet, 
a  man  perhaps  better  qualified  than  any 
other  in  England  to  speak  on  this  subject, 
to  sum  up  the  whole  after-war  labour  situa- 
tion, as  he  saw  it,  and  his  epigrammatic  reply 
was: 

"After  the  war  capital  will  be  ungrudg- 
ing in  its  remuneration  to  labour;  and  la- 
bour, in  turn,  must  be  ungrudging  in  its 
output." 

No  one  doubts  that  after  the  war  the  Brit- 
ish worker  will  have  his  full  share  of  profits. 


62  The  War  After  the  War 

As  one  large  manufacturer  told  me:  "We 
have  so  gotten  into  the  habit  of  turning  our 
profits  over  to  the  government  that  it  will 
be  easy  to  divide  with  our  employees."  Here 
may  be  the  panacea  for  the  whole  English  la- 
bour ill. 

But,  whatever  may  be  the  readjustment 
of  this  labour  problem,  one  thing  is  cer- 
tain :  Peace  will  find  a  disciplined  England. 
The  five  million  men,  trained  to  military 
service,  will  dominate  the  new  English  life; 
and  this  means  that  it  will  be  orderly  and 
productive. 

With  this  discipline  will  come  a  democracy 
— social  and  industrial — such  as  England 
has  never  known.  The  comradeship  between 
peer  and  valet,  master  and  man,  born  of 
common  danger  under  fire,  will  find  re- 
newal, in  part  at  least,  when  they  go  back 
to  their  respective  tasks.  This  wiping  out 
of  caste  in  shop,  mill  and  counting  room  will 
likewise  remove  one  of  the  old  barriers  to 
the  larger  prosperity. 

England  wants  the  closest  trade  relations 
with  her  Dominions.  But  will  the  Colonies 
accept  the  idea  of  a  fiscal  union  of  empire, 
which  practically  means  intercolonial  free 


England  Awake  63 

trade?  Or  will  they  want  to  protect  their 
own  industries,  even  against  the  Mother 
Country?  Like  the  French,  they  are  will- 
ing to  risk  life  and  limb  for  a  cause,  but  they 
likewise  want  to  guard  jealously  their  purse 
and  products.  They  have  not  forgotten  the 
click  when  Churchill  locked  the  home  door 
against  them. 

This  leads  to  the  question  that  is  agitat- 
ing all  England :  Will  peace  bring  tariff  re- 
form? Both  English  and  American  eco- 
nomic destiny  will  be  affected  by  the  deci- 
sion, whatever  it  may  be. 

Canvass  England  and  you  encounter  a 
widespread  movement  that  means,  as  the 
advocates  see  it,  a  broadening  of  the  home 
market;  security  for  the  infant  "key"  indus- 
tries; a  safeguard  for  British  labour — in 
short,  the  end  of  the  old  inequality  of  a  Free 
England  against  a  Protected  Germany. 

Protection  in  England,  hitched  to  a  world- 
wide freeze-out  business  campaign  against 
Germany,  would  doubtless  divert  a  whole 
new  international  discount  business  to  New 
York.  German  exporters  under  these  cir- 
cumstances might  refuse  payments  from 
their  other  customers  on  London,  demanding 


64  The  War  After  the  War 

bills  on  New  York  instead.  To  hold  this 
business,  however,  we  should  need  direct 
banking  and  cable  connections  with  all  the 
grand  divisions  of  trade,  adequate  sea-carry- 
ing power,  dollar  credits,  and  a  government 
friendly  to  business. 

Then,  there  is  the  middle  English  ground 
which  demands  a  ''tariff  for  revenue  only," 
and  subsidy — not  protection — for  the  new 
industries. 

Combating  all  this  is  the  dyed-in-the-bone 
free  trader,  who  points  to  the  fact  that  free 
trade  made  England  the  richest  of  the  Allies 
and  gave  her  control  of  the  sea.  "How  can 
a  nation  that  is  one  huge  seaport,  and  which 
lives  by  foreign  trade,  ever  be  a  protection- 
ist?" he  asks. 

If  he  has  his  way  we  shall  have  to  strug- 
gle harder  for  our  share  of  universal  busi- 
ness. More  than  this,  it  will  block  what  is 
likely  to  be  one  of  Germany's  schemes  for 
rehabilitation.  Here  is  the  possible  pro- 
cedure : 

Germany's  financial  position  after  the  war 
will  be  badly  strained.  She  can  be  saved 
only  by  an  effective  export  policy.  To  do 
this  she  must  seek  all  possible  neutral  mar- 


England  Awake  65 

kets;  and  to  get  them  quickly  she  will  offer 
broad — even  extravagant — reciprocity  pro- 
grammes. They  may  conflict  with  the  pro- 
posed Franco-British  programmes  of  pro- 
tection and  embargo  against  neutral  trade 
interests. 

But  if  the  Franco-British  pro- 
gramme leaves  the  allied  markets  for  goods 
and  money  open,  as  before  the  war,  the  Ger- 
man reciprocity  scheme  will  fail  of  its  ef- 
fect by  the  sheer  force  of  natural  competi- 
tion. Hence  England  can  throttle  the  re- 
establishment  of  German  credit  by  a  free 
and  liberal  trade  policy,  open  to  all  the  world. 
Though  poor,  after  the  war  she  can  actually 
be  stronger,  in  view  of  her  great  army  and 
navy,  her  new  individual  efficiency,  and  re- 
newed commercial  vitality. 

Will  all  this  keep  Germany  out?  There 
are  many  people,  even  in  England,  who  think 
not.  Already  Germans  by  the  thousands  are 
becoming  naturalised  citizens  of  Holland, 
Spain,  Switzerland  and  Denmark;  building 
factories  there  and  shipping  the  product  into 
the  enemy  strongholds,  stamped  with  neutral 
names.  Much  of  the  ''Swiss"  chocolate  you 
buy  in  Paris  was  made  by  Teutonic  hands. 


66  The  War  After  the  War 

A  French  manufacturer  who  bought  a 
grinding  machine  in  Zurich  the  other  day 
thought  it  looked  familiar;  and  when  he 
compared  it  with  a  picture  in  a  German  cata- 
logue he  found  it  was  the  identical  article, 
made  in  Germany,  which  had  been  offered  to 
him  by  a  Frankfort  firm  six  months  before 
the  war  began.  Only  certificates  of  origin 
will  bar  out  the  German  product. 

Amid  the  hatred  that  the  war  has  engen- 
dered, England  wonders  at  the  price  she  will 
pay  for  German  exclusion.  Men  like  Sir 
John  Simon  solemnly  assert  in  Parliament: 
*'In  proportion  as  we  divert  German  trade 
after  the  war  we  throw  the  trade  of  the 
Central  European  Powers  more  and  more 
into  the  hands  of  America,  with  the  re- 
sult that,  unhappily,  if  we  became  involved 
in  another  European  war  we  should  not  be 
able  to  count  on  the  friendly  neutrality 
which  America  has  shown  in  this  war." 
Others  inquire :  ''What  of  the  future  trade 
of  India,  the  great  part  of  whose  cotton  crop 
before  the  war  went  to  Central  Europe?" 

Sober-minded  and  farseeing  men,  in  Eng- 
land and  elsewhere,  believe  that,  despite  the 


England  Awake  67 

ravage  of  her  men  and  trade,  Germany  will 
come  back  commercially. 

"You  must  not  forget,"  said  one  of  them, 
''that,  no  matter  how  badly  she  is  beaten, 
Germany  will  still  be  a  going  business  con- 
cern. She  will  have  an  immense  plant;  her 
genius  of  efficiency  and  organisation  cannot 
be  killed.  Through  her  magnificent  indus- 
trial education  system  she  has  trained  mil- 
lions of  boys  to  take  the  vacant  stools  and 
stands  in  shop  and  mill.  England  and 
France  have  no  such  reserves.  Besides,  if 
we  pauperise  Germany,  no  one — not  even 
Belgium — will  get  a  pound  of  indemnity." 

You  have  now  seen  the  moving  picture  of 
half  a  world  in  process  of  significant  change, 
wrought  by  clash  of  arms,  and  facing  a  com- 
plete economic  readjustment  with  peace. 
Whether  the  Paris  Pact  is  practical  or  vi- 
sionary, no  matter  if  England  is  free  trade 
or  protectionist,  regardless  of  Germany's 
ability  to  find  herself  industrially  at  once, 
one  thing  we  do  know — the  end  of  the  war 
will  find  the  Empire  of  World  Trade  molten 
and  in  the  remaking. 

Fresh  paths  must  be  shaped ;  the  race  will 
be  to  the  best-prepared.    Whatever  our  posi- 


68  The  War  After  the  War 

tion,  be  it  neutral  or  belligerent — and  no 
man  can  tell  which  now — we  shall  face  a 
supreme  test  of  our  resource  and  our  readi- 
ness. What  can  we  do  to  meet  this  crisis, 
which  will  mean  continued  prosperity  or 
costly  reaction? 

Many  things ;  but  they  must  be  done  now, 
when  immunity  from  actual  conflict  gives 
us  a  merciful  leeway.  More  than  ever  be- 
fore, we  shall  face  united  business  fronts. 
Therefore,  co-operation  among  competitors 
is  necessary  to  a  successful  foreign  trade. 

Since  the  coming  trade  war  will  rage 
round  tariffs,  it  will  be  well  to  heed  the  reso- 
lution recently  adopted  by  the  National  For- 
eign-Trade Council:  ''That  the  American 
tariff  system,  whatever  be  its  underlying 
principle,  shall  possess  adequate  resources 
for  the  encouragement  of  the  foreign  trade 
of  the  United  States  by  commercial  treaties 
or  agreements,  or  executive  concessions 
within  defined  limits,  and  for  its  protection 
from  undue  discrimination  in  the  markets 
of  the  world."  In  short,  we  must  have  a 
flexible  and  bargaining  tariff. 

We  must  train  our  men  for  foreign-trade 
fields;  they  must  know  alien  languages  as 


England  Awake  69 

well  as  needs;  we  must  perfect  processes  of 
packing  that  will  deliver  goods  intact.  With 
these  goods,  we  must  sell  goodwill  through 
service  and  contact.  Secondhand-business 
getting  will  have  no  place  in  the  new  rivalry. 

Our  money,  too,  must  go  adventuring,  and 
courage  must  combine  with  capital.  Our 
dawning  international  banking  system, 
which  first  saw  the  light  in  South  America, 
needs  world-wide  expansion.  Dollar  credit 
will  be  a  world  necessity  if  we  capitalise  the 
opportunity  that  peace  may  bring  us.  No 
financial  aid  should  be  so  welcome  as  ours, 
because  it  is  nonpolitical. 

This  trade  machinery  will  be  inadequate 
if  we  have  no  merchant  marine.  Chronic 
failure  to  heed  the  warning  for  a  national 
shipping  will  make  our  dependence  upon  for- 
eign holds  both  acute  and  costly. 

Our  trade  needs  more  than  a  government 
professedly  friendly  to  business.  It  requires 
a  definite  co-operation  with  business.  An 
advisory  board  of  practical  men  of  commer- 
cial affairs  would  be  of  more  constructive 
benefit  to  the  country  than  all  the  lawmakers 
combined. 

Here,  then,  is  the  protection  against  or- 


70  The  War  After  the  War 

ganised  European  economic  aggression,  the 
armour  for  the  inevitable  trade  conflict.  Un- 
less we  gird  it  on,  we  shall  be  onlookers  in- 
stead of  participants. 


Ill — American  Business  in  France 


TWO  Americans  met  by  chance  one 
day  last  summer  at  a  little  table 
in  front  of  the  Cafe  de  la  Paix  in 
Paris.  One  had  arrived  only  a 
month  before;  the  other  was  an  old  resi- 
dent in  France.  After  the  fashion  of  their 
kind  they  became  acquainted  and  began  to 
talk.  Before  them  passed  a  picturesque 
parade,  brilliant  with  the  uniforms  of  half 
a  dozen  nations,  and  streaked  with  the  sym- 
bols of  mourning  that  attested  to  the  ravage 
of  war. 

''There  is  something  wrong  with  these 
Frenchmen,"  said  the  first  American. 
"How  is  that?"  asked  his  companion. 
"It's  like  this,"  was  the  reply.  "I  have 
sold  goods  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific, 
and  yet  I  can  get  nowhere  over  here.  I 
give  these  fellows  the  swiftest  line  of  sell- 
ing talk  in  the  world  and  it  makes  no  im- 
pression." 

"How  well  do  you  speak  French  ?"  queried 
his  new-found  acquaintance. 

71 


72  The  War  After  the  War 

"Not  at  all." 

"Have  you  studied  the  ways  and  needs 
of  the  Frenchman?" 

"Of  course  not.  I've  got  something  they 
want  and  they  ought  to  take  it." 

The  man  who  had  long  lived  in  France 
was  silent  for  a  moment.   Then  he  said: 

"The  fault  is  not  with  the  Frenchman,  my 
friend.  Think  it  over."  He  did,  and  with 
reflection  he  changed  his  method.  He  put 
a  curb  on  strenuosity;  started  to  study  the 
French  temperament;  he  began  to  see  why 
he  had  not  succeeded. 

This  incident  illumines  one  of  the  strang- 
est and  most  inconsistent  situations  in  our 
foreign  trade.  By  a  curious  irony  we  have 
failed  to  realise  our  commercial  destiny  in 
the  one  Allied  Nation  where  real  respect  and 
afifection  for  us  remain.  France — a  sister 
Republic — is  bound  to  us  by  sentimental  ties 
and  the  kinship  of  a  common  struggle  for 
liberty.  Her  people  are  warm-hearted  and 
generous  and  want  to  do  business  with  us. 

Yet,  as  long  and  costly  experience  shows, 
we  have  almost  gone  out  of  our  way  to  clash 
with  their  customs  and  misunderstand  their 
motives.    In  short,  we  have  neglected  a  great 


American  Business  in  France       73 

opportunity  to  develop  a  permanent  and 
worth-while  export  business  with  them.  It 
was  bad  enough  before  the  war.  Events 
since  the  outbreak  of  the  monster  conflict 
have  emphasised  it  more  keenly. 

Why  have  Americans  failed  so  signally 
in  France?  There  are  many  reasons.  First 
of  all,  their  whole  system  of  selling  has  been 
wrong. 

For  years  many  of  our  manufacturers 
were  represented  in  Paris  and  elsewhere  in 
France  by  German  agents,  who  also  repre- 
sented producers  in  their  own  country.  The 
energetic  Teuton  did  not  hesitate  to  install 
an  American  machine  or  a  line  of  American 
goods.  But  what  happened?  When  the  ma- 
chine part  wore  out  or  the  stock  of  goods 
was  exhausted,  there  was  seldom  any  Amer- 
ican product  on  hand  to  meet  the  swift  and 
sometime  impatient  demand  for  replacement 
or  renewal.  By  a  strange  "coincidence" 
there  was  always  an  abundant  supply  of  Ger- 
man material  available.  The  German  sales- 
man always  saw  to  that.  Necessity  knows 
no  nationality.  The  result  invariably  was 
that  German  output  supplanted  the  Amer- 


74  The  War  After  the  War 

ican.  The  Frenchman  did  not  want  to  be 
caught  the  second  time. 

This  prompt  renewal  created  an  immense 
goodwill  for  German  goods.  Right  here  is 
one  of  the  first  big  lessons  for  the  American 
exporter  to  learn,  no  matter  what  country- 
he  expects  to  sell  in.  It  lies  in  keeping  goods 
**on  the  shelf,"  and  being  able  to  meet 
emergency  demand. 

The  Frenchman  in  trade  is  a  sort  of  Mis- 
sourian.  He  must  be  ''shown."  He  shies  at 
samples;  distrusts  drawings.  He  likes  to 
go  into  a  warehouse  and  look  over  stocks; 
it  gives  him  satisfaction  to  pick  and  choose. 
He  is  the  most  fastidious  buyer  in  the  world 
and  he  likes  to  do  things  his  own  way.  Any 
attempt  to  ram  foreign  methods — either  in 
buying  or  selling — down  his  sensitive  throat 
is  bound  to  react. 

Here  is  a  case  in  point :  The  General  Rep- 
resentative in  France  of  a  large  American 
manufacturing  concern  decided  to  engage 
some  French  salesmen.  He  was  a  shark  on 
business  system ;  he  fairly  oozed  with  "scien- 
tific salesmanship";  he  decided  to  gird  his 
Gallic  emissaries  with  the  most  improved 
American  selling  methods.    So  he  prepared 


American  Business  in  France       75 

an  elaborate  ''What  I  did"  schedule  for 
them.  Into  it  was  to  be  written  every  eve- 
ning the  complete  record  of  the  business  day. 

When  he  handed  one  of  these  blanks  to 
his  leading  French  salesman,  that  gentleman 
shrugged  his  shoulders  and  said: 

''It  eez  imposseeble." 

When  the  American  became  insistent  all 
the  French  salesmen  resigned  in  a  body. 
This  objection  was  purely  temperamental. 
If  there  is  one  thing  above  all  others  that 
puts  a  Frenchman  into  panic  it  is  publicity 
of  his  personal  affairs.  He  believes  that 
the  greatest  crime  in  the  world  is  to  be  found 
out,  whether  in  business  or  in  love.  There 
was  nothing  perhaps  to  hide  in  a  biography 
of  his  daily  work,  but  it  was  the  wrong  tack 
to  take. 

In  the  same  way  militant  and  masterful 
salesmanship  also  fails.  A  man  may  be  a 
crack  seller  in  Kansas  City,  Denver,  and  all 
points  West,  but  he  finds  to  his  sorrow  that 
his  dynamic  process  goes  straight  over  the 
head  of  a  Frenchman.  He  refuses  to  be 
driven;  he  wants  time  for  mature  reflection 
and  an  opportunity  to  talk  the  thing  over 
with  his  wife. 


76  The  War  After  the  War 

This  irritating  attempt  to  force  uncon- 
genial methods  on  French  buyers  is  dupli- 
cated in  a  corresponding  lack  of  plain  every- 
day intelligence  in  meeting  the  simplest 
French  requirements. 

Indeed,  the  omissions  of  Americans  are 
wellnigh  incredible.  Take  the  matter  of 
postage  to  France.  The  head  of  a  great 
French  concern  made  this  statement  to  me 
in  sober  earnestness:  "Won't  you  be  good 
enough  to  beg  American  manufacturers  to 
put  their  office  boys  through  a  course  of  in- 
struction in  postal  rates  between  Europe  and 
the  United  States?" 

When  I  asked  him  the  reason  he  said: 
"We  sometimes  get  twenty  letters  from 
America  in  one  mail  and  each  comes  under 
a  two  cent  stamp.  This  has  been  going  on 
for  years  despite  our  repeated  protest  about 
it.  Some  months  my  firm  was  required  to 
pay  from  ten  to  fifteen  dollars  in  excess 
postage." 

Now  the  amount  of  money  involved  in  this 
transaction  is  the  slightest  feature:  it  is  the 
chronic  laxity  and  carelessness  of  the  Amer- 
ican business  man  that  gets  on  the  French- 
man's nerve. 


American  Business  in  France       77 

Here  is  another  case  in  point:  A  well 
known  French  firm  has  been  writing  weekly 
letters  for  the  past  eighteen  months  to  a 
New  England  factory  trying  to  persuade  the 
Manager  to  mark  his  export  cases  with  a 
stencil  plate  and  in  ink  rather  than  with 
a  heavy  lead  pencil,  as  the  latter  marking 
is  almost  obliterated  by  the  time  the  ship- 
ment arrives  at  Havre.  In  fact,  this  French 
firm  went  to  the  extent  of  sending  a  stencil 
and  brush  to  New  England  to  be  used  in 
marking  the  firm's  cases.  But  the  old  pencil 
habit  is  too  strong  and  a  weekly  hunt  has 
to  be  instituted  on  the  French  docks  for  odd 
cases  containing  valuable  consignments  of 
machine  tools.  Vexatious  delays  result.  It 
is  just  one  more  nail  that  the  heedless  Amer- 
ican manufacturer  drives  into  the  coffin  of 
his  French  business. 

These  incidents  and  many  more  that  I 
could  cite,  are  merely  the  approach,  however, 
to  a  succession  of  mistakes  that  make  you 
wonder  if  so-called  Yankee  enterprise  gets 
stage  fright  or  "cold  feet"  as  soon  as  it 
comes  in  contact  with  French  commercial 
possibilities.  Let  me  now  tell  the  prize  story 
of  neglected  trade  opportunity. 


78  The  War  After  the  War 

Last  spring  the  American  Commercial  At- 
tache in  Paris  made  a  speech  at  a  dinner  in 
Philadelphia.  He  painted  such  a  glowing 
picture  of  trade  prospects  in  France  that 
the  head  of  one  of  the  greatest  hardware 
concerns  in  America,  who  happened  to  be 
present,  came  to  him  afterwards  with  enthu- 
siasm and  said:  "We  want  to  get  some  of 
that  foreign  business  you  talked  about  and 
we  will  do  everything  in  our  power  to  land 
it.    Help  us  if  you  can." 

The  Attache  promised  that  he  would  and 
returned  to  his  post  in  Paris.  He  studied  the 
hardware  situation  and  found  a  tremendous 
need  for  our  goods.  He  was  about  to  make 
a  report  to  the  hardware  manufacturer  when 
an  alert  upstanding  young  American  breezed 
into  his  office  and  said : 

"I  have  been  looking  into  the  hardware  sit- 
uation here  and  I  find  that  there  is  a  big 
chance  for  us.  In  fact,  I  have  already  booked 
some  fat  orders.  Will  you  put  me  in  touch 
with  the  right  people  in  America  to  handle 
the  business?" 

''Certainly,"  replied  the  Attache.  "I  know 
just  the  firm  you  are  looking  for."  He  re- 
called the  enthusiastic  remarks  of  the  man 


American  Business  in  France       79 

who  came  to  him  after  the  Philadelphia 
speech,  so  he  said:     "Write  to  the  Blank 

Hardware  Company  in  ,  and  I  am 

sure  you  will  get  quick  action/' 

"No,"  said  the  enterprising  young  Amer- 
ican, "I  will  cable."  He  immediately  got  off 
a  long  wire  telling  what  orders  he  had  and 
giving  gilt  edge  banking  references. 

Quite  naturally  he  expected  a  cable  re- 
ply, but  he  was  too  optimistic.  Day  after 
day  passed  amid  a  great  silence  from  Amer- 
ica. At  the  end  of  two  weeks  he  received 
a  letter  from  the  Export  Manager  of  the 
firm  who  said,  among  other  things:  "We 
are  not  prepared  to  quote  any  prices  for 
the  French  trade  now.  We  have  decided  to 
wait  with  any  extension  of  our  foreign  busi- 
ness until  after  the  war.  Meanwhile  you 
might  call  on  our  agent  in  Paris  who  may 
be  able  to  do  something  for  you." 

The  young  American  dashed  up  to  the 
agent's  warehouse.  The  agent  was  an  old 
man  becalmed  in  a  sea  of  empty  space.  All 
his  young  men  were  off  at  the  front;  a  few 
grey  beards  aided  by  some  women  comprised 
his  working  staff. 

"I  have  no  American  hardware  in  stock," 


80  The  War  After  the  War 

he  said,  ''but  I  may  be  able  to  get  you  some 
English  or  Swiss  goods."  This  did  not  ap- 
peal to  the  young  American.  He  is  now 
making  a  study  of  Russian  finance. 

Full  brother  to  this  episode  is  the  experi- 
ence of  another  American  in  Paris  who 
found  out  that  there  was  great  need  among 
French  women  for  curling  irons.  Despite 
war,  sacrifice  and  sudden  death,  the  French 
woman  is  determined  to  look  her  best.  Be- 
sides, she  is  earning  more  money  than  ever 
before  and  buying  more  luxuries.  Knowing 
these  facts,  the  Yankee  sent  the  following 
cable  to  a  well  known  concern  in  the  Mid- 
dle West: 

**Rush  fifty  thousand  dollars'  worth  of 
curling  irons.  Cable  acceptance."  He  also 
cabled  his  financial  references  which  would 
have  started  a  bank. 

He,  too,  was  doomed  to  disappointment. 
After  a  fortnight  came  the  usual  letter 
from  America  containing  the  now  familiar 
phrase:  "See  Blank  Blank,  our  Paris  rep- 
resentative. He  may  be  able  to  take  care  of 
you." 

Manfully  he  went  to  see  Monsieur  Blank 


American  Business  in  France       81 

Blank,  who  not  only  had  no  curling  irons  but 
refused  to  display  the  slightest  interest  in 
them. 

Still  another  American  took  an  order  for 
some  kid  skins,  intended  for  the  manufac- 
ture of  fine  shoe  uppers.  By  the  terms  of 
the  agreement  they  were  to  be  three  feet  in 
width.  The  money  for  them  amounting  to 
$30,000  was  deposited  in  a  New  York  bank 
before  shipment. 

When  the  skins  reached  Paris  they  were 
found  to  be  heavy,  coarse  leather  and  meas- 
uring five  feet  in  width.  They  were  abso- 
lutely useless  for  the  desired  purpose.  The 
average  French  buyer,  however,  is  not  a 
welcher.  He  accepted  the  undesirable  stufif, 
but  with  a  comment  in  French  that,  translat- 
ed into  the  frankest  American,  means, 
"Never  again!" 

All  this  oversight  is  aided  and  abetted  by 
a  twin  evil,  a  lack  of  knowledge  of  the 
French  language.  Here  you  touch  one  of 
the  chief  obstacles  in  the  way  of  our  foreign 
business  expansion  everywhere.  It  has  put 
the  American  salesman  at  the  mercy  of  the 
interpreter,  and  since  most  interpreters  are 
crooks,  you  can  readily  see  the  handicap  un- 


82  The  War  After  the  War 

der  which  the  helpless  commercial  scout  la- 
bours. A  concrete  episode  will  show  what  it 
costs : 

A  certain  American  firm,  desirous  of  es- 
tablishing a  more  or  less  permanent  connec- 
tion in  France,  sent  over  one  of  its  principal 
officers.  This  man  could  not  speak  a  word 
of  French,  so  he  secured  the  services  of  a 
so-called  ''interpreter  guide."  It  was  pro- 
posed to  select  a  representative  for  the  com- 
pany from  among  a  number  of  firms  in  a 
certain  large  French  seaport.  The  firm 
chosen  was  to  receive  and  pay  for  consign- 
ments through  a  local  bank  and  act  generally 
for  the  American  company. 

Friend  ''interpreter  guide"  said  he  knew 
all  the  big  business  houses  in  the  city,  so  he 
selected  a  firm  which  the  American  accepted 
without  making  the  slightest  investigation. 
A  bank  agreed  to  take  care  of  the  shipments 
and  the  whole  transaction  was  quickly  con- 
cluded. The  American  grabbed  the  papers 
in  the  case  (and  I  might  add  without  the 
formality  of  having  them  examined  by  a 
third  party)  and  left  France  immensely  im- 
pressed with  the  ease  and  swiftness  with 


American  Business  in  France       83 

which  business  could  be  transacted  with  that 
country. 

But  there  was  an  unexpected  and  unfor- 
tunate sequel  to  this  performance.  A  few 
months  later  another  officer  of  this  Ameri- 
can company  came  post-haste  to  France  to 
straighten  out  an  ugly  tangle.  It  developed 
that  the  French  firm  chosen  by  the  "interpre- 
ter guide"  was  not  of  the  highest  standing: 
that  the  interpreter,  for  reasons  and  profits 
best  known  to  himself,  had  entirely  misrepre- 
sented the  conversation,  that  instead  of  pay- 
ing four  per  cent  for  services,  the  American 
firm  was  really  paying  about  ten.  The  whole 
transaction  had  to  be  called  ofif  and  a  new 
one  instituted  at  considerable  expense  of 
time  and  money. 

Another  American  came  to  Paris  without 
knowing  the  language,  used  an  interpreter 
every  day  for  nine  weeks,  and  was  unable  to 
place  a  single  order.  Yet  in  this  time  he 
spent  enough  money  on  his  language  inter- 
mediary to  pay  the  rent  of  a  suitable  office  in 
Paris  for  a  whole  year. 

The  dependence  of  Americans  with  im- 
portant interests  or  commissions  upon  inter- 
preters   is    well    nigh    incredible.    On    the 


84  The  War  After  the  War 

steamer  that  took  me  to  France  last  summer 
was  the  new  Continental  Manager  of  a  large 
American  manufacturing  company.  I  as- 
sumed, of  course,  that  he  could  speak  French. 
A  few  days  after  I  arrived  in  Paris  I  met 
him  in  the  Boulevard  des  Italiens  in  the  grip 
of  a  five  franc  a  day  interpreter.  He  told 
me  with  great  enthusiasm  that  an  interpreter 
was  "the  greatest  institution  in  the  world." 
In  six  months  he  will  probably  reverse  his 
opinion. 

The  lesson  of  this  lack  of  knowledge  of 
French  as  applied  to  salesmanship  is  this: 
That  while  the  average  Frenchman  is  greatly 
flattered  when  you  tell  him  that  his  English 
is  good,  he  prefers  to  talk  business  in  his  own 
vernacular.  He  thinks  and  calculates  bet- 
ter in  French.  Frequently  when  you  engage 
him  in  conversation  in  English  and  the  ques- 
tion of  business  comes  up,  you  find  that  he 
instinctively  lapses  into  his  mother  tongue. 

I  was  talking  one  day  with  Monsieur  Ri- 
bot,  the  French  Minister  of  Finance,  whose 
English  is  almost  above  reproach,  and  who 
maintained  the  integrity  of  his  English 
through  a  long  conversation.  But  the  mo- 
ment I  asked  him  a  question  about  the  pro- 


American  Business  in  France       85 

posed  bond  issue,  he  shifted  into  French  and 
kept  that  key  until  every  financial  rock  had 
been  passed. 

In  short,  you  find  that  if  you  want  to  do 
business  in  France,  you  must  know  the 
French  language.  It  is  one  of  the  keys  to 
an  understanding  of  the  French  tempera- 
ment. 

Even  when  Americans  do  become  ener- 
getic in  France,  they  sometimes  fail  to  for- 
tify themselves  with  important  facts  before 
entering  into  hard  and  fast  transactions. 
As  usual,  they  pay  dearly  for  such  omissions. 
This  brings  us  to  what  might  be  called  The 
Great  American  Deluge  which  overwhelmed 
not  a  few  Yankee  pocketbooks  and  left  their 
owners  sadder  and  saner. 

Fully  to  understand  this  series  of  events, 
you  must  know  that  since  the  beginning  of 
the  war  the  question  of  an  adequate  French 
coal  supply  has  been  acute.  Indeed,  for  a 
while  the  country  faced  a  real  crisis.  Many 
of  her  mines  are  in  the  hands  of  the  Ger- 
mans and  she  was  forced  to  turn  to  England 
for  help.  Not  only  has  the  English  price 
risen,  but  to  it  must  be  added  the  high  cost 
of  transportation,  the  heavy  war  risk,  and 


86  The  War  After  the  War 

all  those  other  details  that  enter  into  such 
negotiations. 

France  had  to  have  coal  and  various  en- 
terprising Americans  got  on  the  job.  At 
least,  they  thought  they  were  enterprising. 
Before  they  got  through,  they  wished  that 
they  had  not  been  so  headlong  as  the  follow- 
ing tale,  now  to  be  unfolded,  will  indicate. 

A  group  of  New  York  men  made  a  con- 
tract to  deliver  three  shiploads  of  coal  at  Bor- 
deaux at  a  certain  price.  After  they  had 
signed  the  contract,  freight  rates  from  Balti- 
more to  the  French  port  almost  doubled. 
This  was  the  first  of  their  troubles.  When 
their  vessel  finally  reached  Bordeaux,  the 
dock  was  so  crowded  with  ships  unloading 
war  munitions  that  they  could  not  get  pier 
space.  In  France  demurrage  begins  the  mo- 
ment a  ship  stops  outside  of  port.  The  net 
result  was  that  these  vessels  were  held  up 
for  nearly  two  weeks  and  the  high  price  of 
transportation  coupled  with  the  very  large 
demurrage  practically  wiped  out  all  the 
profits. 

Another  group  of  Americans  made  a  con- 
tract to  deliver  coal  to  a  French  railway 
"subject  to  call."    Without  taking  the  trou- 


American  Business  in  France       87 

ble  to  inquire  just  what  "subject  to  call" 
meant  in  France,  they  signed  and  sealed  the 
bargain.  Then  they  discovered  that  the  rail- 
road wanted  the  coal  delivered  in  irregular 
instalments.  Meanwhile  the  consignors  had 
to  store  the  coal  in  French  yards  where  space 
to-day  is  almost  as  valuable  as  a  corner  lot 
on  Broadway.  They  were  glad  to  pay  a  cash 
bonus  and  escape  with  their  skin. 

Still  another  group  made  a  contract  with 
the  Paris  Gas  Company  for  a  large  quantity 
of  coal.  They  discovered  later  that  the  com- 
pany expected  the  coal  to  be  delivered  to 
their  bins  in  Paris. 

"But  the  American  plan  is  to  sell  coal 
f.  o.  b.  Norfolk,"  said  the  spokesman. 

"We  are  sorry,"  replied  the  Frenchmen, 
"but  the  coal  must  be  delivered  to  us  in  Paris. 
The  English  have  been  doing  it  for  forty 
years,  and  if  you  expect  to  do  business  with 
us  you  must  do  likewise." 

When  the  Americans  demurred  the  com- 
pany held  them  to  their  contract. 

This  last  episode  shows  one  of  the  great 
defects  in  the  American  system  of  doing 
business  abroad.  We  insist  upon  the  f.  o.  b. 
arrangement,  that  is,  the  price  at  the  Amer- 


88  The  War  After  the  War 

ican  point  of  shipment.  The  foreigner,  and 
especially  the  Frenchman,  wants  a  c.  i.  f. 
price  which  includes  cost,  insurance  and 
freight  and  which  puts  the  article  down  at 
his  door.  The  German  and  English  shippers, 
and  particularly  the  former,  have  made  this 
kind  of  shipment  part  of  their  export  creed, 
and  it  is  one  reason  why  they  have  succeeded 
so  wonderfully  in  the  foreign  field. 

The  Great  American  Coal  Deluge  also 
precipitated  a  flood  of  miserable  titled  ladies 
all  selling  coal  for  "well  known  American 
companies."  Most  of  them  were  clever 
American  women,  married,  or  thinking  they 
were  married,  to  Italian  or  French  noblemen. 
Their  chief  effort  was  to  get  a  cash  advance 
payment  to  bind  the  contract.  Such  details 
as  price,  transportation,  credit,  and  other  es- 
sentials were  unimportant. 

Here  is  a  little  story  which  shows  how 
these  women  did  business  and  undid  Amer- 
ican good  will. 

One  day  last  August,  the  telephone  rang 
in  the  office  of  the  General  Manager  of  a 
long  established  American  concern  in  Paris. 
A  woman  was  at  the  other  end. 

"Is  this  Mr.  Blank?" 


American  Business  in  France        89 

*'Yes." 

"I  am  Countess  A.  and  I  have  a  letter  of 
introduction  for  you." 

"Yes." 

"I  represent  several  large  American  coal 
companies  and  have  secured  a  large  order 
for  Italy." 

"Yes." 

"Can  you  tell  me  how  I  can  get  the  coal 
to  Italy?" 

"Yes." 

"Splendid!    But  how?" 

"By  boats." 

"Oh,  yes,  I  know,  but  have  you  got  the 
boats  and  can  I  get  them?  I  have  the  or- 
der, you  see,  and  that  is  the  main  thing." 

"But,  madam,"  asked  the  man,  "have  you 
cabled  your  company  in  America  about  the 
contract  ?" 

"No,"  answered  the  woman.  "What's  the 
use  of  doing  that.  I  have  no  money  to  spend 
on  cables.  Besides,  I  have  full  power  to 
act.  The  price  is  all  right  and  the  buyers  are 
ready  to  sign  but  they  want  to  put  into  the 
agreement  some  silly  business  about  deliv- 
ery and  I  am  asking  you  to  help  me  get  the 
boats." 


90  The  War  After  the  War 

"Come  and  see  me,"  said  the  Manager. 

The  woman  promised  to  call  the  next 
morning,  but  she  never  came.  Just  what  she 
had  in  mind  the  Manager  could  never  quite 
tell.  But  one  thing  was  proved  in  this  and 
similar  activities :  The  ''Countess"  and  most 
of  her  sisters  who  have  been  trying  to  put 
over  coal  and  other  contracts  in  Paris,  have 
little  or  no  real  authorisation  for  their  per- 
formances, and  the  principal  result  has  been 
to  prejudice  French  and  Italian  buyers 
against  us. 

In  seeking  to  make  French  contracts,  some 
of  these  adventurers  (and  they  include  both 
sexes)  make  the  most  extravagant  claims. 
One  group  circulated  a  really  startling  pros- 
pectus. At  the  top  was  the  imposing  name 
of  the  corporation  with  a  long  list  of 
branches  in  every  part  of  the  world.  Then 
followed  a  list  of  names  of  individuals  and 
firms  with  their  assets  supposed  to  be  part 
and  parcel  of  the  corporation.  One  man 
whose  name  I  had  never  heard  before  and 
who  was  set  down  as  a  Pittsburgher,  was 
accredited  with  assets  of  $250,000,000.  Un- 
der other  individual  and  firm  resources 
ranged  from  one  to  twenty-five  million.  The 


American  Business  in  France       91 

list  included  the  name  of  a  great  American 
retail  merchant,  without  his  consent  I  might 
add,  but  the  promoters  had  cunningly  mis- 
spelled his  name,  which  kept  them  within  the 
pale  of  the  law.  The  total  assets  of  these 
"concerns  personally  responsible  for  all  or- 
ders entrusted"  was  precisely  $340,000,000. 
In  spite  of  this  dazzling  array  of  misinfor- 
mation, let  it  be  said  to  the  credit  of  the 
French  buyer  that  he  failed  to  fall  for  the 
glittering  bait. 

The  more  you  go  into  the  reasons  why  so 
many  of  our  business  men  have  failed  in 
France,  the  more  you  find  out  that  plain 
everyday  business  organisation  seems  to  be 
conspicuously  absent.  Take,  for  example, 
the  question  of  credit.  The  average  Ameri- 
can doing  business  in  France  proceeds  in 
the  assumption  that  every  Frenchman  is  dis- 
honest. This  being  his  theory,  he  either  ex- 
acts cash  in  advance  or  sells  "cash  against 
documents."  Such  a  procedure  galls  the 
Frenchman  who  is  accustomed  to  long  credit 
from  English,  German,  Swiss  and  Spanish 
manufacturers  and  merchants. 

Of  course,  behind  all  these  American  er- 
rors in  judgment  and  tact  is  a  lack  of  or- 


92  The  War  After  the  War 

ganised  credit  information.     To  illustrate: 

When  I  was  in  London,  the  English  Man- 
aging Director  of  one  of  the  greatest  of 
Wall  Street  Banks  received  an  inquiry  from 
his  home  office  for  information  about  the 
Compagnie  Generale  Transatlantique  (the 
French  Line).  The  amazing  thing  was  that 
this  bank,  that  prides  itself  on  its  world- 
wide information,  had  no  data  regarding  the 
leading  steamship  line  between  England  and 
France.  You  may  be  sure  that  the  Credit 
Lyonnais  or  any  other  French  banking  in- 
stitution has  a  complete  record  of  the  Amer- 
ican Line. 

Not  long  ago,  one  of  the  largest  banks  in 
Chicago  refused  to  extend  credit  to  a  French 
concern,  although  the  French  Government 
backed  up  the  purchase.  This  concern  had 
occasionally  done  business  with  a  New  York 
Trust  Company  in  the  Rue  de  la  Paix,  whose 
French  Manager  was  a  live,  virile,  far-see- 
ing young  American.  The  President  of  the 
French  Company  laid  his  case  before  him. 
Quick  as  a  flash  he  said: 

"All  right!  If  they  won't  guarantee  it,  I 
will,  and  on  my  own  responsibility." 

Whereupon  he  put  the  deal  through.    It 


American  Business  in  France       93 

was  the  kind  of  swift,  dramatic  performance 
that  appeals  to  the  Frenchman.  The  net  re- 
sult was  that  the  service  has  come  back  a 
hundredfold  to  the  Trust  Company. 

The  idea  prevailing  in  America  that 
French  firms  are  not  worthy  of  credit  is  a 
matter  of  great  surprise  all  over  Europe. 
Here  is  the  way  an  Englishman  whose  firm 
has  done  business  in  France  for  fifty  years, 
sized  up  the  situation: 

"There  are  no  better  contracts  in  the 
world  than  those  entered  into  in  France. 
Americans  who  have  had  little  experience  in 
such  matters  may  find  the  negotiations  lead- 
ing up  to  the  signing  of  a  French  contract 
somewhat  tedious,  but  we  do  not  mind  this 
and  one  is  so  completely  protected  by  the 
laws  of  the  country,  that  losses  are  almost 
unknown. 

''Not  long  ago  we  had  a  case  in  point.  A 
purchaser  of  lathes  who  had  already  made  an 
advance  payment,  received  his  machines  and 
then  by  various  excuses  put  ofif  the  final  pay- 
ments for  the  remainder  from  week  to  week. 
We  waited  four  weeks  and  then  made  our 
complaint  to  the  judge  at  the  tribunal.  Two 
days  later  the  judge  ordered  the  delinquent 


94  The  War  After  the  War  , 

firm  to  pay  up  in  full  and  we  received  our 
money  the  very  same  day.  How  long  do  you 
think  a  New  York  court  would  have  taken 
to  decide  a  simple  question  of  business  of 
this  kind?  The  fact  is  that  in  spite  of  the 
war,  French  credit  remains  to-day  as  good 
as  any  you  can  find." 

On  top  of  their  resentment  over  our  lack 
of  confidence  in  their  credit  is  the  added 
feeling  which  has  cropped  up  since  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war  over  the  way  American  man- 
ufacturers have  ignored  many  of  their 
French  contracts.  A  French  manufacturer 
summed  it  up  in  this  way : 

''There  is  no  doubt  that  some  American 
manufacturers  who  had  signed  contracts  for 
the  delivery  of  machinery  in  France,  delib- 
erately sold  these  machines  at  home  at  high- 
er prices.  It  has  created  a  very  bad  impres- 
sion and  I  am  afraid  that  henceforth  your 
salesmen  will  find  it  much  harder  to  oper- 
ate in  my  country. 

"The  trouble  is  that  Americans  have  been 
spoiled  by  too  many  orders.  Before  the  war 
they  were  all  crying  out  for  business.  Now 
that  they  have  everything  their  own  way, 
they  have  become  independent  and  arrogant. 


American  Business  in  France       95 

With  the  ending  of  the  war,  all  this  will 
change,  for  the  French  are  not  likely  to  for- 
get some  of  the  bitter  lessons  they  have 
learned.  Henceforth  they  will  profit  by 
them." 

One  reason  for  our  laxity  all  up  and  down 
the  French  business  line  is  that  the  Ameri- 
can has  never  taken  the  French  export  busi- 
ness any  too  seriously.  On  the  other  hand, 
stern  necessity  has  been  the  driving  force 
behind  the  English  and  German  manufac- 
turer. The  American,  too,  has  made  the 
great  mistake  of  assuming  that  the  for- 
eigner, and  especially  the  Frenchman,  is  not 
always  serious-minded  and  to  be  depended 
upon.  If  he  wants  his  mind  disabused  in 
this  matter,  let  me  suggest  that  he  see  him 
at  war.  He  will  realise  that  the  superb 
spirit  of  aggression  and  organisation  that 
mark  him  now  is  bound  to  last  when  peace 
comes. 

You  must  not  get  the  impression  from 
this  long  list  of  American  business  calamity 
that  all  our  endeavour  has  failed  in  France. 
Those  few  great  American  corporations  who 
have  planted  the  flag  of  our  commercial  en- 
terprise wherever  the  trade  winds  blow,  have 


96  The  War  After  the  War 

long  and  successfully  held  up  their  end 
throughout  the  Republic.  So,  too,  with  some 
individuals.  The  story  of  what  one  New 
Yorker  did  is  an  inspiring  and  perhaps  help- 
ful lesson  in  the  right  way  to  do  business  in 
France. 

This  man  is  resolute  and  resourceful:  he 
speaks  French  fluently  and  he  was  familiar 
with  the  foreign  trade  field.  With  the  out- 
break of  war  he  did  not  lose  his  head  and 
try  to  get  business  indiscriminately.  Instead, 
he  made  a  careful  survey  of  the  field;  he  did 
not  listen  to  the  optimist  who  said  it  would 
be  a  short  war :  his  instinct  told  him,  on  the 
contrary,  that  it  would  be  a  long  one.  "What 
will  France  need  more  than  anything  else?" 
he  asked  himself. 

He  realised  that  most  of  all  France  would 
need  machine  tools.  He  got  the  cables  busy 
assembling  goods,  and  by  every  known  route 
he  brought  them  to  France.  When  he  had 
a  warehouse  full  of  material,  he  began  to 
sell.  He  not  only  had  what  the  French  were 
hungering  for,  but  he  had  them  to  deliver 
overnight.  While  his  colleagues  were  fran- 
tically trying  to  get  their  stuff  in,  he  was  get- 


American  Business  in  France       97 

ting  all  the  business.  The  French  like  the 
man  who  makes  good. 

This  man  met  their  expectations  and  to- 
day he  stands  at  the  top  of  the  selling  heap. 

More  than  this,  he  is  building  a  factory 
on  the  outskirts  of  Paris  where  he  will  make 
and  assemble  his  product.  Ask  him  the  rea- 
son why  he  is  doing  this,  and  he  will  tell  you : 

"First,  it  means  good  will ;  second,  we  will 
get  the  benefit  of  native  and  cheap  labour; 
third,  we  will  be  able  to  replace  parts  at  once ; 
and,  fourth,  we  will  get  inside  the  wall  of 
the  Economic  Alliance." 


IV — The  New  France 


NO  matter  how  we  heed  the  example 
of  the  few  progressive  Americans 
who  have  successfully  planted 
their  business  interests  in  France, 
we  will  face  a  new  handicap  when  the  war 
ends.  As  in  England,  we  will  be  bang  up 
against  an  industrial  awakening  that  will 
mark  an  epoch.  Coupled  with  this  revival 
will  be  an  efficiency  born  of  the  war  needs 
that  will  act  as  a  tremendous  speeder-up. 

In  France  this  galvanised  industrial  life 
will  be  stimulated  by  a  brilliant  imagination 
wholly  lacking  in  the  English  temperament. 
It  will  go  a  long  way  toward  opening  up 
fresh  fields  of  labour  and  distribution. 

Self-sufficiency  will  be  the  keynote.  The 
automobile  is  a  striking  instance.  We  had 
established  a  very  promising  motor  market 
(and  especially  with  moderate-  and  low- 
priced  cars)  among  the  French.  When  the 
Government  assumed  control  of  the  French 
automobile  factories  and  changed  their  out- 
put to  war  munitions,  the  two  great  automo- 

98 


The  New  France  99 

bile  syndicates  protested  that  the  cutting  off 
of  the  French  motor  supply  would  mean  an 
immense  loss  of  good  will.  First  came  a  70 
per  cent  duty  on  practically  all  American 
cars  and  this  was  followed  up  by  an  almost 
complete  restriction  of  all  American  cars. 

This  prohibition  will  have  the  same  effect 
as  the  English  exclusion  in  that  it  will  stim- 
ulate the  demand  for  the  native  French  cars. 
Here  we  get  to  one  of  the  striking  phases 
of  the  new  industrial  development  of  im- 
mense concern  to  us.  France  has  her  eye  on 
quantity  output.    Many  signs  point  to  it. 

When  the  war  broke  out,  a  certain  young 
French  engineer  saw  great  opportunity  in 
shell  making.  He  was  immuned  from  mili- 
tary service,  he  had  a  little  capital  of  his 
own,  and  with  Government  aid  he  set  to 
work.  Within  four  months  he  had  built  an 
enormous  plant  on  the  banks  of  the  Seine 
almost  within  the  shadow  of  the  Eiffel 
Tower.  In  six  months  he  had  enlarged  his 
capacity  so  that  he  was  producing  15,000 
shells  a  day.  Last  summer  he  sent  for  the 
agent  of  a  large  American  machinery  com- 
pany: "I  am  going  to  make  automobiles  in 
series  after  the  war."     "In  series"  is  the 


100         The  War  After  the  War 

French  way  of  expressing  quantity  output. 

"All  right,"  said  the  American.  "What 
can  I  do  for  you  ?" 

"Simply  this,"  said  the  Frenchman.  "I 
wish  to  order  sufficient  automatics  to  meet 
the  demand  when  peace  comes." 

This  is  the  spirit  of  the  awakened  French 
industry.  I  know  of  half  a  dozen  automo- 
bile and  other  producing  establishments  who 
are  making  plans  to  manufacture  popular- 
priced  cars  when  the  war  is  over.  This  out- 
put will  not  only  afifect  the  sale  of  American 
cars  in  France,  but  will  also  interfere  with 
the  market  for  our  cheap  machines  in  South 
America.  Already  France  is  making  every 
effort  to  increase  her  Latin-American  trade. 
She  has  immense  sums  of  money  invested  in 
Brazil  and  she  will  follow  up  this  advantage 
keenly. 

It  is  important  for  us  to  remember  that 
France  like  England  will  have  a  well  oiled 
productive  machine  after  the  war.  It  will 
not  only  be  better  but  bigger  than  ever  be- 
fore. The  German  ill  wind  that  devastated 
the  northern  section  will  blow  good  in  the 
end.  Hundreds  of  factories  operated  by 
hand  labour  before  the  war  will  now  be 


The  New  France  101 

equipped  with  American  labour-saving  ma- 
chinery. The  products  of  these  machines 
operated  by  cheap  labour  will  be  in  competi- 
tion with  our  own  commodities  manufac- 
tured by  more  expensive  labour  in  many  of 
the  markets  of  the  world. 

Formerly  the  French  artisan  could  pro- 
duce an  article  almost  from  raw  material  to 
finished  product:  now  he  has  learned  to 
stand  at  an  automatic  and  labour  at  a  single 
part.  In  short,  he  is  becoming  a  specialist 
which  makes  him  a  cog  in  the  machine  of 
quantity  output. 

What  is  true  of  machines  and  men  is  also 
true  of  money.  The  old  wariness  of  the 
French  banker  in  underwriting  industry  is 
passing  away.  He  is  thinking  in  terms  of 
large  figures  and  vast  projects. 

I  could  cite  many  examples  of  the  new 
Gospel  of  French  Self-Supply.  Before  the 
war  France  manufactured  lathes  that  were 
beautiful  examples  of  art  and  precision. 
The  firms  that  made  them  were  old  and  solid 
and  took  infinite  pride  in  their  product. 
Now  they  realise  that  output  must  dominate. 
A  simple  type  of  machine  has  been  chosen 


102         The  War  After  the  War 

as  model  and  will  henceforth  be  made  in 
large  quantities. 

Then  there  is  the  sewing  machine.  Be- 
fore the  war  two  groups — Anglo-American 
and  German — controlled  the  French  market. 
By  the  ingenious  use  of  export  premiums, 
the  Germans  had  the  best  of  it. 

"Why  always  pay  tribute  to  strangers?" 
now  asks  the  French  housewife.  So  far  as 
Germany  is  concerned,  this  question  is  al- 
ready settled.  But  the  American  sewing  ma- 
chine will  have  to  struggle  for  its  existence 
hereafter  in  France,  for  plans  have  been 
made  for  at  least  three  huge  factories  for  its 
production. 

Striking  evidence  of  the  growing  French 
industrial  independence  of  Germany  is  her 
advance  in  crucible  making.  For  years 
Sevres  vied  with  Limoges  for  ceramic  hon- 
ours. To-day  the  vast  plant  which  once  pro- 
duced the  most  exquisite  and  delicate  ware  in 
the  world  is  now  producing  the  less  lovely 
but  more  serviceable  crucibles,  condensers 
and  retorts  necessary  for  the  distillation  of 
the  powerful  acid  used  in  modern  high  ex- 
plosives. Previous  to  the  war,  the  Centrah 
Empire  had  a  monopoly  on  this  market.    In- 


The  New  France  103 

deed,  much  of  the  pottery  and  glassware 
used  in  laboratories  and  chemical  factories 
was  made  in  Bohemia  and  marketed  by  Ger- 
many. Now  the  Sevres  plant  is  shipping 
these  goods  to  England  and  Russia. 

So,  too,  with  dye  stuffs.  A  whole  new 
French  colouring  industry  is  being  created. 
A  Societe  d'Etude  has  been  formed  to  make 
a  scientific  survey  and  this  will  be  replaced 
by  a  National  Company  to  undertake  the 
manufacture  of  all  coal  tar  products. 

The  use  of  a  certain  number  of  new  war 
factories  has  been  guaranteed  to  the  com- 
pany by  the  Minister  of  War.  Typical  of 
the  purpose  which  will  animate  the  enter- 
prise is  one  of  the  articles  of  the  National 
Company  which  provides  that  the  Director 
of  the  Dye  Stuff  Industry  must  be  of  French 
birth.  An  agreement  has  also  been  made 
with  England  and  Italy  to  protect  the  colour 
output  of  the  three  countries  with  a  high 
tariff  after  the  war.  Here  you  find  one  tan- 
gible evidence  of  the  working  out  of  the 
Paris  Economic  Pact. 

Even  while  the  invader's  hand  still  lies 
heavy  upon  the  land,  France  looks  ahead  to 
reconstruction.    Last  summer  Paris  flocked 


104         The  War  After  the  War 

to  a  graphic  exhibition  of  how  to  rebuild  a 
destroyed  city.  It  was  called  La  Cite  Recon- 
stitue,  and  was  held  in  the  Tuileries  Gar- 
den. Here  you  could  see  the  modern  way  of 
making  a  Phoenix  rise  quickly  out  of  the 
ashes.  There  were  model  schoolhouses, 
churches,  factories,  and  cottages,  all  with 
standardised  parts  which  could  be  thrown 
together  in  an  almost  incredibly  short  time. 

With  Self-Sufficiency  has  come  a  desire 
for  new  business  know^ledge.  Not  long  ago 
an  American  business  man  w^ho  has  lived  in 
Paris  for  many  years,  received  a  letter  from 
a  young  French  friend  in  the  trenches  at 
Verdun.    The  soldier  wrote : 

"I  realise  that  when  this  war  is  over  we 
must  be  better  equipped  than  ever  before  to 
meet  world  business  competition.  I  w^ant  to 
be  a  better  salesman.  Please  send  me  some 
books  on  American  salesmanship  and  also 
some  of  the  American  trade  papers.  I  have 
begun  the  study  of  Spanish  because  I  believe 
we  are  going  to  have  our  part  in  the  Latin- 
American  trade."  Here  was  a  young 
Frenchman  risking  his  life  every  moment  in 
one  of  the  greatest  battles  the  world  has 


The  New  France  105 

ever  known:  yet  in  the  midst  of  death  he 
was  looking  forward  to  a  new  business 
life. 

The  whole  attitude  of  the  Frenchman  to- 
ward life  has  undergone  a  change,  first  un- 
der the  stress  of  ruthless  war,  and  under  the 
spur  of  his  kindling  desire  for  rehabilita- 
tion. Formerly,  for  example,  the  French 
loathed  to  travel.  When  he  knew  he  was  go- 
ing away  on  a  journey,  he  spent  a  month  tell- 
ing his  relatives  good-bye.  Now  he  packs 
his  bag  and  is  off  in  an  hour  to  Lyon,  Mar- 
seilles, Bordeaux,  or  any  other  place  where 
business  might  dictate. 

The  new  and  efficient  French  industrial 
machine  is  not  the  only  factor  that  Ameri- 
can business  in  France  must  reckon  with 
after  the  war.  The  French  woman  is  fast 
becoming  a  force,  thus  setting  up  an  alto- 
gether unequal  and  almost  unfair  competi- 
tion, because  to  shrewd  wit  and  resource  is 
added  the  power  of  sex  and  beauty. 

In  France,  as  most  people  know,  the  wom- 
an exerts  an  enormous  influence,  regardless 
of  her  social  class.  In  all  regulated  bour- 
geois families  the  wife  holds  the  purse 
strings;  in  the  small  shops  she  keeps  the 


106         The  War  After  the  War 

cash  and  runs  things  generally.  No  aver- 
age Frenchman  would  think  of  embarking 
on  any  sort  of  enterprise  without  first  talk- 
ing it  over  with  his  femme,  who  is  also  his 
partner.  This  team  work  lies  at  the  root  of 
all  French  thrift. 

The  woman  of  the  lower  class  has  met  the 
grim  emergency  of  war  with  sacrifice  and 
courage.  Not  only  has  she  faced  the  loss 
of  those  most  dear  with  uncomplaining  lips, 
but  she  has  taken  her  man's  place  every- 
where. You  can  see  her  standing  Amazon- 
like in  leather  apron  pouring  molten  metal  in 
the  shell  factory;  she  drives  you  in  a  cab 
or  a  taxi;  she  runs  the  train  and  takes  the 
tickets  in  the  Underground :  in  short,  she  has 
become  a  whole  new  asset  in  the  human 
wealth  of  the  nation  and  as  such  she  will 
help  to  make  up  for  the  inevitable  shortage 
of  men. 

Her  sister  of  the  upper  class,  at  once  the 
most  practical  and  most  feminine  of  her  sex, 
is  also  doing  her  bit.  She  is  the  lovely  thorn 
in  the  path  of  the  American  business  pro- 
moter in  France. 

Before  the  war,  it  was  rare  to  find  this 
type  of  woman  competing  with  men  in  out- 


The  New  France  107 

side  business  affairs,  although  her  influence 
has  always  counted  immensely  in  official  life 
where  she  pulls  the  strings  to  get  husband  or 
lover  Government  preferment  or  concession. 

Since  the  war,  however,  necessity  has 
sharply  developed  her  latent  business  quali- 
ties. Now  it  is  not  unusual  to  find  her  in  di- 
rect competition,  using  all  those  delightful 
charms  with  which  Nature  has  endowed  her. 
This  is  especially  true  of  widows  and  women 
whose  husbands  are  at  the  front.  They 
often  rely  more  upon  persuasion  than  upon 
any  technical  or  practical  knowledge.  One 
reason  why  they  succeed  is  their  almost  un- 
canny knowledge  of  men.  And  this  often 
enables  them  to  grasp  swiftly  the  clue  that 
business  opportunity  offers. 

One  night  at  dinner  a  Colonel's  widow,  a 
gracious  and  beguiling  lady,  heard  that  the 
French  Government  was  in  the  market  for 
50,000  head  of  cattle.  The  next  morning  she 
sent  half  a  dozen  cables  to  South  America, 
got  options,  and  in  three  days  her  formal 
bid  was  "at  the  War  Office.  Within  a  week 
she  had  the  contract. 

I  know  of  a  case  of  the  wife  of  a  Colonel 
at  the  front,  who  heard  one  day  at  lunch 


108         The  War  After  the  War 

that  the  War  Office  needed  50,000  sacks  of 
flour  for  the  army  at  Saloniki.  That  same 
day  she  put  the  matter  before  some  Ameri- 
can brokers  in  Paris,  who  wired  to  their  New 
York  firm  and  received  the  usual  American 
reply:  "Am  not  interested  in  the  French 
trade  now.    Will  wait  until  after  the  war." 

With  the  utmost  difficulty  the  woman  was 
able  to  secure  10,000  sacks  by  way  of  Italy 
and  Switzerland.  She  is  not  likely  to  seek 
American  sources  of  supply  soon  again. 

An  American  got  a  tip  one  day  that  a  cer- 
tain contract  for  machine  tools  was  avail- 
able. He  had  an  appointment  for  lunch,  so 
he  said  to  himself:  "Why  hurry?  These 
French  people  are  slow.  Til  get  busy  this 
afternoon  or  to-morrow." 

When  he  went  to  the  establishment  in 
question  the  next  day,  he  found  that  an  ex- 
quisitely gowned  woman  had  just  preceded 
him;  indeed,  the  fragrance  of  the  perfume 
she  used  still  hovered  about  the  outer  office. 
The  man  cooled  his  heels  for  half  an  hour 
when  the  lovely  feminine  vision  flashed  by 
him  going  out.  He  started  to  make  his  sell- 
ing talk  to  the  Purchasing  Agent,  who  said, 
at  the  first  opening: 


The  New  France  109 

"I  am  extremely  sorry,  Monsieur,  but  we 
have  just  closed  the  contract  with  Madam 
Blank  who  left  a  few  moments  ago." 

The  New  France  has  brought  forth  a  New 
Woman ! 

Through  all  the  organised  approach  to 
Self-Sufficiency  and  Economic  Rehabilita- 
tion, France  has  not  lost  sight  of  her  grudge 
against  the  Germans.  Indeed,  no  phase  of 
her  business  life  to-day  is  more  picturesque 
than  the  campaign  now  in  full  swing  not  only 
against  Teutonic  trade,  but  against  any  re- 
sumption of  commercial  relation  with  the 
hated  enemy  across  the  Rhine.  Right  here 
you  get  a  striking  difference  between  Eng- 
lish and  French  methods.  While  Britain 
takes  out  some  of  her  enmity  against  Ger- 
man trade  in  eloquent  conversation,  France 
has  gone  about  it  in  a  practical  way,  shot 
through  with  all  the  colour  and  imagination 
that  only  the  French  could  employ  upon  such 
procedure. 

Preliminary  to  this  campaign  was  a  char- 
acteristic episode.  Almost  with  the  flareup 
of  war,  the  French  mind  turned  sentimental- 
ly to  those  fateful  early  Seventies  when  Ger- 
many in  the  flush  of  her  great  victory  seized 


110         The  War  After  the  War 

the  fruits  of  that  triumph.  Some  of  those 
fruits  were  embodied  in  the  famous  Treaty 
of  Frankfort  in  which  the  Teuton  clamped 
the  mailed  fist  down  on  every  favoured 
French  trade  relation. 

The  war  automatically  annulled  this 
treaty,  and  although  the  nation  was  in  the 
first  throes  of  a  struggle  that  threatened  ex- 
istence, it  celebrated  the  revocation  in  char- 
acteristic fashion.  Millions  of  copies  of  the 
Frankfort  Treaty  were  printed  and  sold  on 
the  streets  of  Paris  and  elsewhere.  The  ex- 
cited Frenchman  rushed  up  and  down  brand- 
ishing his  copy  and  saying:  "Now  we  will 
ram  this  treaty  down  the  throat  of  the 
Boche!" 

This  emotional  prelude  was  now  followed 
by  a  definite  crusade  for  the  elimination  of 
German  goods.  Anti-German  societies  were 
formed  all  over  the  country.  Backing  these 
up  are  dozens  of  other  formidable  organisa- 
tions, such  as  Chambers  of  Commerce  and 
Business  Clubs.  Typical  of  the  campaign  is 
the  formation  of  a  Buyers'  League  which  is 
intended  to  assemble  all  persons  who  will 
take  a  resolution  never  to  buy  a  German 
product  and  be  satisfied  for  the  remainder 


The  New  France  111 

of  their  lives  with  the  French  manufactured 
article. 

Wherever  you  go  in  France,  you  find  some 
concrete  and  striking  evidence  of  the  Anti- 
German  wave.  When  you  get  a  bundle  from 
a  Paris  shop,  you  are  likely  to  find  stuck  on 
it  a  brilliantly  coloured  stamp  showing  a 
pair  of  bloody  hands  holding  a  number  of 
packages,  the  largest  one  labeled  "made  in 
Germany."  Under  it  is  the  sentence  in 
French  reading:  "Frenchmen,  do  not  buy 
German  products.  The  hands  that  made  are 
reddened  with  the  blood  of  our  soldiers." 

There  is  great  variety  in  these  stamps, 
which  are  used  on  letters  and  packages.  One 
of  the  most  popular  shows  a  helmeted  Ger- 
man with  a  brutal  face  holding  a  smiling 
mask  before  his  visage.  In  one  hand  he 
holds  a  bundle  marked  "Made  in  Germany." 
On  this  stamp  is  the  inscription:  "Mistrust 
their  smiles — in  every  German  there  is  a 
spy.'; 

Still  another  and  equally  popular  stamp 
pictures  a  soldier  with  bandaged  head  stand- 
ing by  a  prostrate  comrade  and  pointing  to 
a  fleeing  German.  The  inscription  reads: 
"We  chase  the  Germans  during  the  war. 


112         The  War  After  the  War 

You,  civilians,  will  you  allow  them  to  return 
after  peace?" 

One  stamp  used  much  throughout  the  Pro- 
vincial French  cities  shows  a  woman  in  deep 
mourning  weeping  over  a  grave  marked  with 
a  cross  surmounted  by  a  red  soldier  cap. 
The  woman  is  supposed  to  be  saying  these 
words:  "French  people,  buy  no  more  Ger- 
man products.     Remember  this  grave." 

A  companion  stamp  shows  a  figure  rep- 
resenting the  French  Republic  and  holding 
the  tri-colour.  The  flag  is  attached  to  a 
spear  with  which  she  is  piercing  the  breast 
of  a  German  eagle  on  the  ground.  At  her 
side  is  the  national  bird  of  France,  the  Cock, 
crowing  triumphantly.  Underneath  are  the 
words :    "Refuse  all  German  products." 

Similar  in  idea  is  another  dramatic  con- 
ception showing  a  white  robed  female  fig- 
ure holding  a  battle  axe  in  one  hand  and 
pointing  with  the  other  to  a  burning  cathe- 
dral. Her  words  are:  "Frenchmen,  do 
not  consume  any  German  products.  Remem- 
ber 1914." 

Most  of  the  large  French  cities  have  their 
own  Anti-German  stamps  which  are  en- 
larged and  used  on  billboards  as  posters.    A 


The  New  France  113 

typical  city  stamp  is  that  of  Lyon,  which 
shows  a  Cock  in  brilHant  colours  standing 
proudly  in  the  red  and  blue  rays  of  a  white 
sun.  Attached  is  the  legend:  "National 
League  of  Defence  of  French  Interests — 
The  Anti-German  League:  Buy  French 
Products." 

The  City  of  Marseilles  has  a  stamp  show- 
ing the  French  Cock  standing  on  a  German 
helmet  surrounded  by  the  words  "Anti-Ger- 
man League."  Elsewhere  on  the  stamp  is 
the  inscription:  "No  more  of  the  people — 
No  more  German  products." 

Whether  the  Frenchman  buys  or  sells,  he 
has  poked  under  his  nose  or  flaunted  before 
his  eyes  every  hour  of  the  business  day  some 
concrete  evidence  that  his  country  has  put 
the  German  people  and  their  products  under 
the  ban. 

In  connection  with  this  campaign  are 
some  facts  of  utmost  significance  to  the 
American  business  man  who  has  studied  the 
intent  and  purpose  of  the  Paris  Economic 
Pact  which  is  described  in  a  previous  chap- 
ter, and  which  declared  for  an  Allied  war 
of  economic  reprisal  against  Germany  and 
the  other  Central  Powers.     In  that  chap* 


114         The  War  After  the  War 

ter,  as  you  may  recall,  the  point  was  made 
that  since  individuals  and  not  nations  do 
business,  the  Pact  was  likely  to  fail. 

With  their  usual  intelligence,  the  French 
understand  this,  and  their  whole  educational 
campaign  at  home  is  to  make  the  individual 
Frenchman  immune  against  the  lure  of  the 
cheap  German  products.  The  French  know 
that  it  is  the  sum  of  individual  French  re- 
sistance to  German  buying  that  will  keep  the 
German  product  forever  outside  the  realm 
of  the  Republic. 

Indeed,  the  clearest-minded  men  in  France 
to-day  believe  that  more  commercial  advan- 
tage will  accrue  to  France  by  the  intensive 
development  of  her  resources,  the  perfection 
of  old  industries  and  the  creation  of  new 
ones  than  in  the  formation  of  committees 
devoted  to  plans  for  commercial  alliances 
dedicated  to  reprisal.  In  other  words,  this 
helps  to  bear  out  the  theory  held  in  many 
quarters  that  the  economic  pact  is  after  all 
merely  a  campaign  document  and  utterly  im- 
practicable. 

In  France  there  are  other  signs  that  point 
to  a  rift  in  the  Pact.  While  I  was  in  Paris, 
a  well  known  Senator  pointed  out  that  as 


The  New  France  115 

soon  as  the  war  ended  France  would  need 
coal  and  would  look  to  Italy  for  it  as  she  had 
done  in  the  past.  To  obtain  her  coal  more 
cheaply  than  she  is  now  doing  from  the 
United  States  or  England,  Italy  would  very 
likely  make  concessions  to  Germany  in  or- 
der to  obtain  German  fuel.  The  result  would 
be  an  interchange  of  merchandise  between 
the  two  countries  regardless  of  the  decree 
of  the  Paris  Pact.  The  question  arises: 
Could  France  place  restrictions  upon  the 
Italian  frontier  to  the  annoyance  of  her  Al- 
lies? 

Meanwhile  France  is  seeking  immunity 
from  any  future  coal  crisis  by  developing  a 
system  of  hydraulic  power  which  will  not 
only  be  economical,  but  will  also  help  to  cut 
down  her  imports.  It  is  just  one  more  phase 
of  the  ever-widening  programme  of  Self- 
Sufficiency. 

Despite  our  past  blunders,  our  present 
lack  of  organised  initiative,  and  the  efforts 
toward  Self-Supply,  the  future  holds  a  large 
business  opportunity  for  America  in  France. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  half  of  the  selling  work 
is  already  registered  because  the  French  are 
eager  and  anxious  to  do  business  with  their 


116         The  War  After  the  War 

great  sister  democracy  across  the  sea.  It  is, 
therefore,  up  to  the  American  exporter  to 
capitalise  the  needs  of  the  nation  and  the 
good  will  that  it  bears  toward  us.  But  it 
must  be  done  now. 

For  one  thing,  it  cannot  be  achieved  with- 
out constructive  co-operative  work.  Groups 
of  exporters  must  organise  and  establish  of- 
fices in  Paris  and  elsewhere  in  France.  The 
reason  for  this  is  that  the  Frenchman  ab- 
hors the  fly-by-night  salesman:  he  likes  to 
feel  that  the  man  with  whom  he  is  trading 
has  taken  some  sort  of  root  in  his  midst. 

With  organisation  must  come  knowledge. 
Why  did  the  Germans  succeed  so  amazingly 
in  France  ?  Geographical  proximity  and  the 
Frankfort  Treaty  helped  some,  but  the  prin- 
cipal selling  power  he  wielded  was  that  he 
lived  with  his  clients,  found  out  what  they 
wanted,  and  gave  it  to  them.  If  a  French 
farmer,  for  example,  wanted  a  purple  plough 
share  fastened  to  a  yellow  body,  the  German 
assumed  that  he  knew  what  he  wanted  and 
made  it  for  him.  The  average  American  ex- 
porter, on  the  other  hand,  has  always  as- 
sumed that  the  foreign  customer  had  to 
take  what  was  given  to  him.    For  this  rea- 


The  New  France  117 

son  we  have  failed  in  South  America  and 
for  this  reason  we  will  fail  in  France  unless 
we  change  our  methods.  Knowledge  is  sell- 
ing power. 

We  must  be  prepared  to  give  the  French 
long  credits,  and  if  necessary,  finance  French 
enterprises.  Despite  her  immense  gold 
hoardings,  she  may  feel  an  economic  pinch 
after  the  war.  We  must  also  have  sound 
and  organised  French  credit  information. 

Our  salesmen  must  know  the  French  lan- 
guage and  sympathise  with  the  French  tem- 
perament. Give  the  French  buyer  a  ghost 
of  a  chance  and  he  will  meet  you  more  than 
half  way.  Unlike  the  stolid  Englishman  he 
is  plastic,  adaptable  and  imaginative.  Un- 
derstanding is  a  large  part  of  the  trade 
battle. 

We  must  accumulate  large  stocks  of 
American  goods  in  France  to  indulge  the 
purchaser  in  his  favourite  occupation  of 
long  and  elaborate  choosing  and  to  meet  de- 
mands for  renewal.  To  ship  these  goods  we 
must  have  our  own  bottoms.  Here,  as  else- 
where in  the  whole  export  outlook,  is  the  old 
need  of  a  merchant  marine. 

But  we  will  never  realise  our  trade  des- 


118         The  War  After  the  War 

tiny  in  France  without  reciprocity.  We  can- 
not sell  without  buying.  France  looks  to  us 
to  take  part  of  the  huge  flood  of  goods  that 
once  went  to  Germany.  We  take  some  of 
her  wine :  we  must  take  more.  We  buy  her 
silks  and  frocks:  the  American  market  for 
them  must  now  be  widened.  We  depended 
upon  Germany  for  many  of  our  toys :  France 
expects  the  Anglo-Saxon  nursery  henceforth 
to  rattle  with  the  mechanical  devices  which 
will  provide  meat  and  drink  for  her  maimed 
soldiers.  And  so  on  down  a  long  list  of 
commodities. 

All  this  means  that  before  the  mood  cools 
we  must  conclude  new  commercial  treaties 
with  France  and  assure  for  ourselves  a  real- 
ly favoured  nation  relation  that  carries  the 
guarantee  of  a  permanent  foreign  trade  now 
so  necessary  to  our  permanent  prosperity. 

In  the  last  analysis  you  will  find  that  it 
is  France  and  not  England  to  whom  we  must 
look  for  the  larger  commercial  kinship  after 
the  war.  The  spirit  of  the  awakened  Britain, 
so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  is  the  spirit  of 
militant  trade  conquest:  the  dominant  de- 
sire of  the  speeded-up  France  is  benevolent 
Self-Sufficiency. 


The  New  France  119 

Whether  England  realises  her  vast  dream 
remains  to  be  seen.  But  one  thing  is  certain : 
No  man  can  watch  France  in  the  supreme 
Test  of  War  without  catching  the  thrill  of 
her  heroic  endeavour,  or  feeling  the  influ- 
ence of  that  immense  and  unconquerable  se- 
renity with  which  she  has  faced  Triumph 
and  Disaster.  They  proclaim  the  deathless- 
ness  of  her  democracy,  the  hope  of  a  new 
world  leadership  in  art  and  craft. 

She  will  be  a  worthy  trade  ally. 


V — Saving  for  Victory 


BY  making  patriotism  profitable,  Eng- 
land has  enlisted  an  Army  of  Savers 
and  launched  the  greatest  of  all 
Campaigns  of  Conservation.  No 
contrast  in  the  greatest  of  all  conflicts  is  so 
marked  as  this  flowering  of  thrift  amid  the 
ruins  of  a  mighty  extravagance.  The  story 
of  Britain's  "Economy  First"  campaign  is  a 
chapter  of  regeneration  through  destruction 
that  is  full  of  interest  and  significance  for 
every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the  United 
States.  Through  self-denial  a  complete  rev- 
olution in  national  habits  has  begun.  Out  of 
colossal  evil  has  come  some  good. 

It  has  taken  a  desperate  disease  to  invoke 
a  desperate  remedy.  The  average  Ameri- 
can, firm  in  his  belief  that  he  holds  a  mo- 
nopoly on  world  waste,  has  had,  almost  with- 
out his  knowledge,  a  formidable  rival  in 
England  these  past  years.  Whether  the 
visiting  Yankee  tourist  helped  to  set  the  pace 
or  not,  the  fact  remains  that  when  the  war 

120 


Saving  for  Victory  121 

broke  over  England  she  was  as  extravagant 
as  she  was  unprepared. 

The  Englishman,  like  his  American 
brother,  though  unlike  the  Scotch,  is  not 
thrifty  by  instinct.  He  regards  thrift  as  a 
vice.  He  prefers  to  let  the  tax  gatherer  do 
his  saving  for  him.  He  believes  with  his 
great  compatriot  Gladstone  that  "it  is  more 
difficult  to  save  a  shilling  than  to  spend  a 
million." 

Contrasting  the  Englishman  and  the 
Frenchman  in  the  matter  of  economy,  you 
find  this  interesting  parallel:  With  the 
Frenchman  the  first  question  that  attends 
income  is  "How  much  can  I  save?"  Saving 
is  the  supreme  thing.  With  the  Briton,  how- 
ever, it  becomes  a  matter  of  "How  much  can 
I  spend?"    Saving  is  incidental. 

To  associate  thrift  with  the  British  work- 
ingman  is  to  conceive  a  miracle.  To  be  sure, 
he  seldom  had  anything  to  save  before  the 
war.  But  with  the  speeding-up  of  industry 
to  meet  the  insatiate  hunger  for  munitions 
and  the  corresponding  increase  of  from 
thirty  to  fifty  per  cent,  even  more,  in  wages, 
he  suddenly  began  to  revel  in  a  wealth  that 
he  never  dreamed  was  possible.     The  more 


122         The  War  After  the  War 

he  made  the  more  he  spent.  He  squandered 
his  financial  substance  on  fine  cigars,  expen- 
sive clothes,  and  excessive  drinks,  while  his 
wife  bedecked  herself  in  gaudy  finery  and 
installed  pianos  or  phonographs  in  her  house. 
No  one  thought  of  To-morrow. 

Just  as  it  took  the  shock  of  a  long  succes- 
sion of  military  reverses  to  rouse  the  Eng- 
lish mind  to  the  consciousness  that  the  war 
would  be  long  and  bitter,  so  did  the  abuse  of 
all  this  temporary  and  inflated  war  time  pros- 
perity bring  to  far-seeing  men  throughout 
England  the  realisation  that  the  British  peo- 
ple, and  more  especially  those  who  worked 
with  their  hands,  were  booked  for  serious 
social  and  economic  trouble  when  peace 
came,  unless  they  saw  the  error  of  their 
wasteful  ways. 

''What  can  we  do  to  stem  this  tide  of  ex- 
travagance and  at  the  same  time  plant  the 
seed  of  permanent  thrift,"  asked  these  men 
who  ranged  from  Premier  to  Prelate.  No 
one  knew  better  than  they  the  difficulties  of 
the  task  before  them.  In  England,  as  in 
America,  thrift  is  more  regarded  as  a  vice 
than  a  virtue.     Like  the  taste  for  olives  it 


Saving  for  Victory  123 

is  an  acquired  thing.  To  spend,  not  to  save, 
is  the  instinct  of  the  race. 

But  there  were  other  and  equally  serious 
reasons  why  all  England  should  buck  up 
financially  and  make  every  penny  do  more 
than  its  duty.  First  and  foremost  was  the 
terrific  cost  of  the  war  that  every  day  took 
its  toll  of  $25,000,000;  second  was  the  enor- 
mous increase  in  imports  and  the  diminished 
flow  of  exports,  a  reversal  of  pre-war  con- 
ditions that  meant  that  England  each  day 
was  buying  $5,000,000  worth  of  goods  more 
than  other  countries  were  purchasing  from 
her;  third  was  the  human  shrinkage  due  to 
the  incessant  demand  of  battlefield  and  fac- 
tory. Everywhere  was  colossal  expenditure 
of  men  and  money:  nowhere  existed  check 
or  restraint.     Something  had  to  be  done. 

It  was  generally  admitted  that  the  first 
thing  for  everybody  to  do  was  to  spend  less 
on  themselves  than  in  times  of  peace.  When, 
where  and  how  to  save  became  the  great 
question.  To  save  money  at  the  cost  of 
efficiency  for  essential  and  urgent  work  was 
not  true  economy.  *'But,"  said  the  thrift 
promoters,  "waste  is  possible  even  in  the 
process  of  attaining  efficiency.     For  exam- 


124         The  War  After  the  War 

pie,  people  may  eat  too  much  as  well  as  too 
little,  they  may  buy  more  clothes  than  they 
actually  need,  ride  when  they  could  walk, 
employ  a  servant  when  they  could  do  their 
own  work,  use  their  motors  when  they  could 
travel  in  a  tram." 

Thus  every  class  came  within  the  range  of 
the  lightning  that  was  about  to  strike  at  the 
root  of  an  ancient  evil. 

The  start  was  interesting.  Before  the 
war  was  a  year  old  definite  order  emerged  of 
what  was  at  the  beginning  a  scattered  pro- 
test against  reckless  spending.  But  long 
before  the  first  organised  message  of  sav- 
ing went  to  the  home  and  purse  of  the 
worker,  the  rich  began  to  economise.  Here 
is  where  you  encounter  the  first  of  the  many 
ironies  and  contrasts  that  mark  this  whole 
campaign.  The  people  who  could  most  af- 
ford to  be  extravagant  were  the  first  to  draw 
in  their  horns.  This,  of  course,  was  not  par- 
ticularly surprising  because  the  rich  are  nat- 
urally thrifty.  It  is  one  reason  why  they 
get  and  stay  rich. 

Among  the  pioneer  organisations  was  the 
Women's  War  Economy  League  founded 
and  developed  by  a  group  of  titled  women 


Saving  for  Victory  125 

who  got  hundreds  of  their  sisters  to  pledge 
themselves  to  give  up  unnecessary  entertain- 
ing, not  to  employ  men  servants  unless  ineli- 
gible for  military  service,  to  buy  no  new 
motor  cars  and  use  their  old  ones  for  pub- 
lic or  charitable  work,  to  buy  as  few  ex- 
pensive articles  of  clothing  as  possible,  to 
reduce  in  every  way  their  expenditures  on 
imported  goods,  and  to  limit  the  buying  of 
everything  that  came  under  the  category  of 
luxuries.  Champagne  was  banned  from  the 
dinner  table,  decollete  gowns  disappeared: 
men  substituted  black  for  white  waistcoats 
in  the  evening. 

The  rich  really  needed  no  organised  stim- 
ulus to  retrench.  The  great  target  for  at- 
tack was  the  mass  of  the  population  who  did 
not  know  what  it  meant  to  save  and  who 
required  just  the  sort  of  constructive  les- 
son that  an  organised  thrift  movement  could 
teach. 

Much  of  the  increase  in  wages  among  the 
workers  was  going  for  food  and  drink. 
Hence  the  opening  assault  was  made  on  the 
market  bill.  Fortunately,  an  agency  was  al- 
ready in  operation.  At  the  outbreak  of  the 
war  a  National  Food  Fund  was  started  to 


126         The  War  After  the  War 

feed  the  hungry  Belgians.  That  work  had 
become  more  or  less  automatic  (the  Bel- 
gians' appetite  is  a  pretty  regular  clock),  so 
its  machinery  was  now  trained  to  the  twin 
conservation  of  British  stomachs  and  sav- 
ings. 

"Save  the  Food  of  the  Nation,"  was  the 
appeal  that  went  forth  on  every  side.  "No 
One  is  too  Rich  or  Poor  to  Help.  Every 
man,  woman  and  child  in  the  country  who 
wants  to  serve  the  state  and  help  win  the 
war  can  do  so  by  giving  thought  to  the  ques- 
tion of  conserving  food.  Since  the  great 
bulk  of  our  food  comes  from  abroad,  it  takes 
toll  in  men,  ships  and  money.  Every  scrap 
of  food  wasted  means  a  dead  loss  to  the 
Nation  in  men,  ships  and  money.  If  all  the 
food  that  is  now  being  wasted  could  be  saved 
and  properly  used  it  would  spare  more 
money,  more  ships,  more  men  for  the  Na- 
tional defence." 

Now  began  a  notable  campaign  of  educa- 
tion which  was  carried  straight  into  the 
kitchen.  Food  demonstrators  whose  work 
ranged  from  showing  the  economy  of  cook- 
ing potatoes  in  their  skins  to  making  fire- 
less  cookers  out  of  a  soap  box  and  a  bundle 


Saving  for  Victory  127 

of  straw,  went  up  and  down  the  Kingdom 
holding  classes.  In  town  halls,  schools,  vil- 
lage centres  and  drawing-rooms,  mistress 
and  maid  sat  side  by  side.  ''Waste  noth- 
ing," was  the  new  watchword. 

Backing  up  the  uttered  word  was  a  per- 
fect deluge  of  literature  that  included  "Hand 
Books  for  House  Wives,"  "Notes  on  Cook- 
ing," "Hints  for  Saving  Fuel,"  "Economy 
in  Food,"  in  fact,  dozens  of  pamphlets  all 
showing  how  to  make  one  scrap  of  food  or 
a  single  stick  of  wood  do  the  work  of  two. 

The  people  behind  this  movement  knew 
that  with  waste  of  food  was  the  kindred 
waste  of  money.  They  realised,  too,  that 
even  the  most  effective  preachment  for  food 
economy  must  inevitably  be  met  by  the  cry, 
"Everybody  must  eat."  With  money,  on  the 
other  hand,  there  seemed  a  better  opportunity 
to  drive  home  a  permanent  thrift  lesson.  So 
the  forces  that  had  built  the  bulwark  around 
the  English  stomach  now  set  to  work  to  rear 
a  rampart  about  the  English  pocketbook. 

Circumstances  played  into  their  hand. 
The  Great  War  Loan  of  $3,000,000,000  had 
just  been  authorised.  "Why  not  make  this 
loan  the  text  of  a  great  National  thrift  les- 


128         The  War  After  the  War 

son  and  give  every  working  man  and  woman 
a  chance  to  become  a  financial  partner  of 
the  Empire,"  said  the  saving  mentors.  It 
was  decided  to  put  part  of  this  loan  within 
the  range  of  everybody,  that  is,  to  issue  it 
in  denominations  from  five  shilling  scrip 
pieces  up,  to  sell  it  through  the  post  ofifice 
and  thus  bring  the  new  savings  bank  to  the 
very  doors  of  the  people. 

Again  a  machine  was  needed,  and  once 
more  as  in  the  case  of  the  food  campaign 
one  was  well  oiled  and  accessible.  It  was 
the  organisation  that  had  raised,  by  eloquent 
word  and  equally  stimulating  poster  and 
pamphlet,  the  great  volunteer  army  of  3,- 
000,000  men.  Just  as  it  had  drawn  soldiers 
to  the  fighting  colours,  so  did  it  now  seek 
to  lure  the  savings  of  the  people  to  the  finan- 
cial standard  of  the  nation. 

The  Parliamentary  Recruiting  Committee 
became  the  Parliamentary  War  Savings 
Committee  and  it  loosed  a  campaign  of  ex- 
ploitation such  as  England  had  never  seen 
before.  From  newspapers,  bill  boards  and 
rostrums  was  hurled  the  injunction  to  buy 
the  War  Loan  and  help  mould  the  Silver  Bul- 
let that  would  crush  the  Germans.     It  was 


Saving  for  Victory  129 

literally  a  "popular  loan"  in  that  the  five 
shilling  short-term  vouchers,  bought  at  the 
post  office,  and  which  paid  5  per  cent,  could 
be  exchanged  when  they  had  grown  to  five 
pounds  for  a  share  of  long-term  War  Stock 
paying  4^  per  cent.  The  higher  rate  of 
interest  was  the  inducement  to  begin  sav- 
ing and  it  worked  like  a  charm. 

Tribute  to  the  efficacy  of  this  programme 
is  the  fact  that  more  than  1,000,000  Eng- 
lish workers  purchased  the  War  Loan. 
Through  this  procedure  they  learned,  what 
most  of  them  did  not  know  before,  that 
when  you  put  money  out  to  work  it  earns 
more  money.  It  meant  that  they  had  be- 
come investors  and  were  starting  on  the 
road  to  independence. 

But  this  campaign,  admirable  as  it  was  in 
scope  and  execution,  failed  in  its  larger  pur- 
pose of  reaching  the  great  mass  of  the  peo- 
ple. While  more  than  1,000,000  workers 
participated  in  the  loan  their  holdings  really 
comprised  but  a  small  percentage  of  the  im- 
mense total.  The  bulk  of  the  buying  was 
by  banks,  corporations,  trustees,  and  wealthy 
individuals.  The  message,  therefore,  of  per- 
manent thrift  combined  with  a  more  or  less 


130         The  War  After  the  War 

continuous  investment  opportunity  for  every 
man  still  had  to  be  delivered.  All  the  while 
the  Empire  hungered  for  money  as  well  as 
for  men. 

Such  was  the  state  of  afifairs  when  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  appointed  the 
Committee  on  War  Loans  for  the  Small  In- 
vestor. It  had  two  definite  functions:  to 
raise  funds  for  the  national  defence  and  to 
provide  through  the  medium  selected  some 
simple  and  accessible  means  for  the  employ- 
ment of  the  average  man's  money. 

This  Committee  recommended  that  an  is- 
sue be  made  of  Five  Per  Cent  Exchequer 
Bonds  in  denominations  of  five,  twenty  and 
fifty  pounds  to  be  sold  at  all  post  offices.  It 
was  an  excellent  idea  and  was  immediately 
authorised  by  the  Treasury.  The  Exchequer 
Bond  became  part  of  the  swelling  flood  of 
British  war  securities  and  might  have  had 
a  distinction  all  its  own  but  for  the  enter- 
prise and  sagacity  of  one  man  who  happened 
to  be  a  member  of  this  Committee. 

That  man  was  Sir  Hedley  Le  Bas.  You 
must  know  his  story  before  you  can  go  into 
the  part  that  he  played  in  the  great  drama 
of  British  investment  that  is  now  to  be  un- 


Saving  for  Victory  131 

folded.  A  generation  ago  he  was  the  lusti- 
est lad  in  Jersey,  his  birthplace.  His  feats 
as  swimmer  were  the  talk  of  a  race  inured 
to  the  hardships  of  the  sea.  After  seven 
years  in  the  Army  he  came  to  London  to 
make  his  fortune.  From  an  humble  clerical 
position  he  rose  to  be  head  of  one  of  the 
great  book  publishing  houses  in  Great  Brit- 
ain, employing  over  400  salesmen,  spend- 
ing over  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  a 
year  in  advertising  alone. 

Sir  Hedley  is  big  of  bone,  dynamic  of 
personality,  more  like  the  alert,  wideawake 
American  business  man  than  almost  any 
other  individual  I  have  ever  met  in  Eng- 
land. One  day  he  gave  the  British  publish- 
ing business  the  jolt  of  its  long  and  dignified 
life  by  taking  a  whole  page  in  the  Daily  Mail 
to  advertise  a  single  book.  His  colleagues 
said  it  was  ''unprofessional,"  that  it  vio- 
lated all  precedent.  Sir  Hedley  thought  to 
the  contrary  and  in  vindication  of  his  judg- 
ment the  book  developed  into  a  "best  seller." 
That  pioneer  page  in  the  Mail  was  the  first 
of  many. 

Prior  to  the  outbreak  of  the  present  war. 
Sir  Hedley  had  been  consulted  by  the  then 


132         The  War  After  the  War 

Minister  of  War  as  to  the  most  advisable 
means  of  getting  recruits. 

"Why  don't  you  advertise?"  he  asked. 

"It's  never  been  done  before,"  replied  the 
Minister. 

"Then  it's  high  time  to  begin,"  said  the 
hard-headed  Jerseyman. 

His  plan  scarcely  had  time  to  be  consid- 
ered when  the  Great  War  broke.  Sir  Hed- 
ley  was  made  a  member  of  the  Parliamentary 
Recruiting  Committee  and  with  Kitchener 
helped  to  face  England's  huge  problem  of 
raising  a  volunteer  army.  How  was  it  to 
be  done  ? 

Hardly  had  the  new  War  Chief  wanned 
the  chair  in  his  office  down  in  Whitehall, 
than  Le  Bas  came  to  him  with  this  sugges- 
tion: "The  quickest  way  to  raise  the  new 
army  is  to  advertise  for  men." 

Kitchener's  huge  bulk  straightened:  he 
looked  surprised:  the  idea  seemed  un- 
soldierly,  almost  unpatriotic.  But  he  knew 
Le  Bas.     After  a  moment's  hesitancy: 

"All  right.    Go  ahead." 

Under  Le  Bas  was  launched  the  publicity 
campaign  which  no  man  who  visited  Eng- 
land during  its  progress  will  ever  forget. 


Saving  for  Victory  133 

This  galvanic  publisher  geared  all  the  Forces 
of  Print  up  to  the  idea  of  selling  Military 
Service.  Instead  of  books  the  Merchandise 
was  Men. 

The  most  lureful,  colourful  and  effective 
posters  that  artist  brain  could  possibly  con- 
ceive flashed  from  every  bill  board  in  the 
Kingdom.     No  one  could  escape  them. 

It  was  Le  Bas  who  created  the  phrase 
"Your  King  and  Country  Need  You"  that 
went  echoing  throughout  the  Kingdom  and 
drew  more  men  to  the  colours  perhaps  than 
any  other  plea  of  the  war. 

When  the  Parliamentary  Recruiting  Com- 
mittee became  the  Parliamentary  War  Sav- 
ings Committee,  Le  Bas  went  with  it.  Its 
first  job  was  to  sell  the  Great  War  Loan. 
The  Treasury  officials  wanted  it  done  in  the 
usual  dignified  British  way. 

At  the  first  meeting  of  the  Committee,  Le 
Bas  objected  to  this  procedure.  Early  the 
next  morning  he  went  around  to  the  house 
of  Reginald  McKenna,  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer. 

"The  Chancellor  is  in  his  bath,"  said  the 
footman  who  opened  the  door. 


134         The  War  After  the  War 

"Then  I'll  wait  until  he  can  get  a  robe 
on,"  said  Le  Bas. 

Fifteen  minutes  later,  the  man  who  holds 
the  British  purse  strings  sat  clad  in  a  dress- 
ing gown  and  listened  to  the  suggestion  that 
revolutionised  British  methods  of  financial 
salesmanship. 

**If  we  want  to  sell  the  War  Loan,  Mr. 
Chancellor,"  said  Sir  Hedley,  "we  will  have 
to  advertise  in  a  big  way.  It's  a  business 
proposition  and  we  must  adopt  business 
methods." 

"It  sounds  interesting,"  said  the  Chancel- 
lor. "Come  to  my  office  at  ten  and  we  will 
talk  it  over." 

It  was  then  8:30  o'clock.  By  the  time  he 
met  the  Chancellor  at  the  Treasury  he  had 
dictated  the  whole  outline  of  the  advertising 
campaign.  The  scheme  was  adopted:  the 
Government  spent  fifty  thousand  pounds  ad- 
vertising the  loan  but  it  sold  every  penny 
of  it. 

This  then  was  the  type  of  man  who  had 
sat  in  the  six  meetings  of  War  Loan  for 
Small  Investors  and  listened  to  many  con- 
ventional suggestions.  He  instinctively 
knew  that  the  Five  Pound  Exchequer  Bond 


Saving  for  Victory  135 

was  not  a  sufficient  bait  to  hook  the  small 
savings  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people. 

"We've  got  to  make  some  kind  of  at- 
tractive offer,"  said  Sir  Hedley  to  himself. 
"In  fact,  we  must  give  the  investor  some- 
thing for  nothing  to  make  him  lend  his  money 
to  the  country.  A  pound  note  looks  big  to 
the  average  Englishman.  Why  not  give 
him  a  pound  for  every  fifteen  shillings  and 
sixpence  that  he  will  lay  aside  for  the  use 
of  the  Nation?  In  other  words,  why  not 
make  patriotism  profitable?" 

When  he  laid  this  plan  before  the  Com- 
mittee, it  was  unanimously  approved.  The 
maxim  of  "Fifteen  and  Six  for  a  Pound" 
was  now  unfurled  to  the  breezes  and  the 
super-campaign  to  corral  the  British  penny 
was  on,  under  the  auspices  of  the  National 
War  Savings  Committee  which  now  super- 
seded all  other  organisations  as  the  head  and 
front  of  the  National  Thrift  idea. 

Although  he  had  a  strong  selling  appeal 
in  the  fact  that  he  was  giving  the  small 
British  investor  something  for  nothing,  Sir 
Hedley  realised  that  his  first  bid  for  sav- 
ings must  have  the  real  punch  of  war  in  it. 
What  was  it  to  be? 


136         The  War  After  the  War 

He  thought  a  moment  and  then  went  over 
to  the  War  Office  where  Lloyd  George  had 
just  succeeded  the  lamented  Kitchener. 

"What  could  a  man  buy  for  fifteen  and 
six?"  he  asked  the  many-sided  little  Welsh- 
man who  was  progressively  filling  every  im- 
portant job  in  the  Empire. 

''He  could  buy  six  trench  bombs,"  was 
the  reply. 

**What  else?"  queried  the  publisher. 

"He  could  get  124  cartridges  or " 

"That's  enough !"  exclaimed  Le  Bas.  "I've 
got  it!" 

Lloyd  George  looked  a  little  startled, 
whereupon  his  visitor  remarked :  "You  have 
given  me  just  the  thing  I  wanted.  Wait  un- 
til to-morrow  and  you  will  find  out  what 
it  is." 

The  very  next  day  Lloyd  George  and  a 
great  part  of  the  whole  British  Nation  knew 
exactly  what  Sir  Hedley  got  out  of  his  inter- 
view with  the  War  Minister,  because  the 
first  advertisement  announcing  the  new  type 
of  War  Loan  read  like  this : 


Saving  for  Victory  137 

"ONE  HUNDRED  AND  TWENTY- 
FOUR  CARTRIDGES  FOR  FIF- 
TEEN AND  SIX,  AND  YOUR  MON- 
EY BACK  WITH  COMPOUND  IN- 
TEREST 

*'Do  you  know  that  every  15/6  you  put  into 
War  Savings  Certificates  can  purchase 
124  rifle  cartridges? 

"How  many  Cartridges  will  you  provide  for 
our  men  at  the  Front? 

"For  every  15/6  you  put  into  War  Savings 
Certificates  now  you  will  receive  f  i  in 
five  years'  time.  This  is  equal  to  com- 
pound interest  at  the  rate  of  5.47  per  cent. 

"Each  year  your  money  grows  as  follows: 

In  I  year  it  becomes  15/9 

In  2  years  it  becomes  16/9 

In  3  years  it  becomes  17/9 

In  4  years  it  becomes  18/9 

In  5  years  it  becomes  £1 

"If  you  need  it  you  can  withdraw  your 
money  at  any  time,  together  with  any 
interest  that  has  accrued." 

This  advertisement  made  a  good  many 
people  sit  up  because  it  brought  home  for 


138         The  War  After  the  War 

the  first  time  one  concrete  use  of  the  money 
absorbed  in  war  loans. 

The  National  War  Savings  Committee 
had  two  things  to  sell.  One  was  the  Five 
Per  Cent  Exchequer  Bond:  the  other  was 
the  new  Fifteen  and  Six  War  Savings  Cer- 
tificate. The  promoters  were  quick  to  see 
that  while  the  Exchequer  Bond  was  very  de- 
sirable, the  principal  efifort  must  be  concen- 
trated on  the  War  Savings  Certificate  for 
which  the  widest  appeal  and  the  best  selling 
talk  could  be  made. 

That  it  was  a  good  "buy"  nobody  could 
deny.  It  was  the  obligation  of  the  British 
Government :  it  was  free  from  Income  Tax : 
it  could  be  cashed  in  at  any  time  at  a  profit : 
and  it  made  the  owner  part  and  parcel  of 
the  financing  of  the  war.  Every  post  office 
and  nearly  every  bank  became  a  selling 
agent.  In  short,  it  was  a  simple,  cheap  and 
worth-while  investment  absolutely  within  the 
scope  of  every  one. 

At  the  outset  the  sale  was  restricted  to 
those  whose  income  did  not  exceed  $1,500, 
the  purpose  being  to  keep  the  investment 
among  the  wage  earners.  So  many  muni- 
tion workers  were  receiving  such  large  in- 


Saving  for  Victory  139 

comes  that  this  ban  was  removed.  The  only 
limitation  imposed  was  that  no  individual 
could  hold  more  than  500  Certificates.  This 
did  not  prevent  the  various  members  of  a 
family,  for  example,  from  each  acquiring  the 
full  limit. 

Having  decided  to  make  the  War  Savings 
Certificate  its  prize  commodity,  the  Com- 
mittee proceeded  to  launch  a  spectacular, 
even  sensational  promotion  campaign.  J. 
Rufus  Wallingford  in  his  palmiest  days  was 
never  more  persuasive  than  the  literature 
which  now  fairly  flooded  Great  Britain. 

The  phrase  "Your  King  and  Country 
Need  You"  that  had  stirred  the  recruiting 
fever  now  had  a  full  mate  in  the  slogan 
"Saving  for  Victory"  which  began  to  loosen 
pounds  and  pence  from  their  hiding  places. 
The  injunction  that  went  forth  everywhere 
was 

'WORK  HARD:   SPEND  LITTLE: 
SAVE  MUCH" 

From  every  bill  board  and  every  news- 
paper were  emblazoned : 


140         The  War  After  the  War 

"SIX  REASONS  WHY  YOU  SHOULD 
SAVE" 

Here  are  the  reasons: 

1.  Because     when     you     save     you     help 

our  soldiers  and  sailors  to  win  the 
war. 

2.  Because  when  you  spend  on  things  you  do 

not  need  you  help  the  Germans. 

3.  Because  when  you  spend  you  make  other 

people  work  for  you,  and  the  work  of 
every  one  is  wanted  now  to  help  our 
fighting  men,  or  to  produce  necessaries, 
or  to  make  goods  for  export. 

4.  Because  by  going  without  things  and  con- 

fining your  spending  to  necessaries  you 
relieve  the  strain  on  our  ships  and  docks 
and  railways  and  make  transport 
cheaper  and  quicker. 

5.  Because  when  you  spend  you  make  things 

dearer  for  every  one,  especially  for 
those  who  are  poorer  than  you. 

6.  Because  every  shilling  saved  helps  twice, 

first  when  you  don't  spend  it  and  again 
when  you  lend  it  to  the  Nation. 


Saving  for  Victory  141 

The  word  "Save"  which  had  dropped  out 
of  the  British  vocabulary  suddenly  came 
back.  It  was  dramatised  in  every  possible 
way  and  it  became  part  of  a  new  gospel  that 
vied  with  the  war  spirit  itself. 

The  National  War  Savings  Committee 
became  a  centre  of  activity  whose  long  arms 
reached  to  every  point  of  the  Kingdom. 
Branch  organisations  were  perfected  in 
every  village,  town  and  county:  the  Ad- 
miralty and  the  War  Office  were  enlisted: 
through  the  Board  of  Education  every  school 
teacher  became  an  advance  agent  of  thrift: 
the  Church  preached  economy  with  the  Scrip- 
ture :  in  a  word,  no  agency  was  overlooked. 

The  sale  of  Certificates  started  off  fairly 
well.  On  the  first  day  more  than  2,000  were 
sold  and  the  number  steadily  increased.  But 
while  many  individuals  rallied  to  the  cause, 
there  was  not  sufficient  team  work. 

One  serious  obstacle  stood  in  the  way. 
While  fifteen  shillings  and  a  sixpence  is  a 
comparatively  small  sum  to  a  man  who  makes 
a  good  income,  it  looms  large  to  the  wage 
earner,  especially  when  it  has  to  be  "put  by" 
and  then  goes  out  of  sight  for  four  or  five 
years.    So  the  National  War  Savings  Com- 


142         The  War  After  the  War 

mittee  set  about  establishing  some  means  by 
which  the  average  man  or  woman  could  start 
his  or  her  investment  with  a  sixpence,  that 
is,  twelve  cents.  Even  here  there  was  a 
difficulty.  Millions  of  people  in  England 
could  save  a  sixpence  a  week,  but  the  chances 
are  that  before  they  piled  up  the  necessary 
fifteen  and  six  to  buy  the  first  Certificate 
they  would  succumb  to  temptation  and 
spend  it. 

The  English  small  investor,  like  his 
brother  nearly  everywhere,  is  a  person  who 
needs  a  good  deal  of  urging  or  the  power 
of  immediate  example  about  him.  There- 
upon the  Committee  said :  "What  seems  im- 
possible for  the  individual,  may  be  possible 
for  a  group." 

Thus  was  born  the  idea  of  the  War  Sav- 
ings Association,  planned  to  enable  a  group 
of  people  to  get  together  for  collective  sav- 
ing and  co-operative  investment.  This 
proved  to  be  one  of  the  master  strokes  of 
the  campaign.  From  the  moment  these  As- 
sociations sprang  into  existence,  the  whole 
War  Savings  Certificates  project  began  to 
boom  and  it  has  boomed  ever  since. 

War  Savings  Associations  are  groups  of 


Saving  for  Victory  143 

people  who  may  be  clerks  in  the  same  of- 
fice, shop  assistants  in  the  same  establish- 
ments, workers  in  the  same  factory  or  ware- 
house, people  attending  the  same  place  of 
worship,  residents  in  any  well-defined  lo- 
cality such  as  a  village  or  ward  of  a  town, 
members  of  a  club,  the  servants  in  a  house- 
hold: in  short,  any  number  of  people  who 
are  willing  to  work  together.  Some  have 
been  started  with  lo  members,  others  with 
as  many  as  500.  Up  to  the  first  of  January 
nearly  10,000  of  these  Associations  had  been 
formed  throughout  the  Kingdom. 

Now  came  the  inspiration  that  was  little 
short  of  genius  for  it  enabled  the  lowliest 
worker  who  could  only  set  aside  a  sixpence 
a  week  to  become  an  intimate  part  of  the 
great  British  Saving  and  Investment 
Scheme.     The  idea  was  this : 

If  one  man  saves  sixpence  a  week,  it  would 
take  him  thirty-one  weeks  to  get  a  One 
Pound  War  Certificate.  But  if  thirty-one 
people  each  save  sixpence  a  week,  they  can 
buy  a  Certificate  at  once  and  keep  on  buying 
one  every  week.  Thus  their  savings  begin 
to  earn  interest  immediately.  Thus  every 
War    Savings    Association    became    a    co- 


144         The  War  After  the  War 

operative  saving  and  investment  syndicate 
— a  pool  of  profit. 

How  are  the  Certificates  distributed?  The 
usual  procedure  is  to  draw  lots.  In  a  small 
Association  no  member  is  ordinarily  per- 
mitted to  win  more  than  one  Certificate  in 
a  period  of  thirty-one  weeks,  except  by  spe- 
cial arrangement.  Each  Association,  how- 
ever, can  make  its  own  allotment  rules.  The 
value  of  winning  a  Certificate  the  first  week 
is  that  the  winner's  15/6  will  have  grown  to 
one  pound  in  four  years  and  a  half  instead 
of  five.  This  is  broadly  the  financial  advan- 
tage gained  by  being  a  member  of  an  Asso- 
ciation, although  the  larger  reason  is  that 
it  is  more  or  less  compulsory  as  well  as  co- 
operative saving. 

Britain  is  buzzing  with  these  War  Savings 
Associations.  You  find  them  in  the  mobili- 
sation camps,  on  the  training  ships,  on  the 
grim  grey  fighters  of  the  Grand  Fleet,  even 
in  the  trenches  up  against  the  battle  line. 
The  London  telephone  girls  have  their  own 
organisation :  sales  forces  of  large  commer- 
cial houses  are  grouped  in  thrift  units :  there 
are  saving  battalions  in  most  of  the  muni- 
tion works,  and  so  it  goes.     In  many  of  the 


Saving  for  Victory  145 

big  mercantile  establishments  that  have  As- 
sociations, the  weekly  drawings  of  Certifi- 
cates with  all  their  elements  of  chance  and 
profits  are  exciting  events. 

Many  Britishers  shy  at  co-operation.  For 
example,  they  like  to  save  "on  their  own." 
To  meet  this  desire,  the  War  Savings  Com- 
mittee devised  an  individual  saving  and  in- 
vestment plan  which  begins  with  a  penny, 
that  is  two  cents.  Any  person  can  go  to 
the  Treasurer  of  a  War  Savings  Associa- 
tion and  get  a  blank  stamp  book.  Each 
penny  that  he  deposits  is  marked  with  a  lead 
pencil  cross  in  a  blank  square.  When  six 
of  these  marks  are  recorded,  a  sixpenny 
stamp  is  pasted  on  the  blank  space.  As  soon 
as  the  book  contains  thirty-one  stamps  it  is 
exchanged  for  a  War  Savings  Certificate. 

Still  another  plan  has  been  devised  to  meet 
requirements  of  people  who  do  not  care  to 
affiliate  with  the  War  Savings  Associations. 
Any  post  office  will  issue  a  stamp  book  in 
which  ordinary  sixpenny  postage  stamps 
can  be  pasted.  When  thirty-one  have  been 
affixed  they  may  be  exchanged  at  the  post 
office  for  a  pound  Savings  Certificate.  These 
books  have  this  striking  inscription  on  their 


146         The  War  After  the  War 

cover:  "Save  your  Silver  and  it  will  turn 
into  Gold !  1 5/6  now  means  a  sovereign  five 
years  hence." 

The  whole  Savings  Campaign  is  studded 
with  picturesque  little  lessons  in  thrift.  The 
London  costers — the  pearl-buttoned  men 
who  drive  the  little  donkey  carts — subscribed 
to  $1,000  worth  of  Certificates  in  a  single 
week,  although  they  had  made  a  previous  in- 
vestment of  $4,000. 

In  hundreds  of  factories  the  idea  has 
taken  root.  In  some  of  them  War  Savings 
subscriptions  are  obtained  by  means  of  de- 
ductions from  wages.  Employees  can  sign 
an  authorisation  for  a  certain  amount  to 
be  taken  each  week  or  month  out  of  their 
wages.  They  get  accustomed  to  having  two, 
three,  four  or  five  shillings  lifted  out  of  their 
wages  and  thus  their  saving  becomes  auto- 
matic. 

Often  the  employer  helps  the  movement 
by  contributing  either  the  first  or  last  six- 
pence of  each  Certificate  or  offering  Cer- 
tificates as  bonuses  for  good  conduct  or  extra 
work.  When  one  small  employer  that  I 
heard  of  pays  his  men  their  War  Bonus,  he 
gets  them,  if  they  are  willing,  to  place  two 


Saving  for  Victory  147 

sixpenny  stamps  on  a  stamp  card,  for  which 
he  deducts  tenpence.  The  employees  are 
thus  given  twopence  for  every  shilling  they 
save.  When  these  cards  bear  stamps  up  to 
the  value  of  15/6  they  are  exchanged  for 
War  Savings  Certificates. 

No  field  has  been  more  fruitful  than  the 
public  schools  where  the  thrift  seed  has  been 
planted  early.  In  hundreds  of  public  edu- 
cational institutions  Savings  Clubs  have 
been  formed  to  buy  Certificates.  In  Hunt- 
ingdonshire, where  there  were  less  than  150 
pupils,  more  than  $35.00  was  subscribed  in 
a  single  morning.  At  Grimsby  a  successful 
trawler  owner  gave  $5,000  to  the  local  teach- 
ers' association  to  help  the  War  Savings 
crusade.  A  shilling  has  been  placed  to  the 
credit  of  every  child  who  undertakes  to  save 
up  for  a  War  Savings  Certificate,  the  child's 
payments  being  made  in  any  sum  from  a 
penny  up.  Ninety-five  per  cent  of  the  chil- 
dren in  the  town  have  begun  to  save.  Sim- 
ilarly, a  councillor  of  Colwyn  Bay  has  of- 
fered to  pay  one  shilling  on  each  Certificate 
bought  by  the  scholars  of  one  of  the  town's 
schools,  and  also  ofifered  to  add  fifty  per  cent 
to  all  sums  paid  into  the  school  savings  bank 


148         The  War  After  the  War 

during  one  particular  week,  provided  that 
the  money  was  used  to  purchase  War  Sav- 
ings Certificates. 

Almost  countless  schemes  have  been  de- 
vised to  instil,  encourage  and  develop  the 
thrift  idea.  In  certain  districts,  patriotic 
women  make  house  to  house  canvasses  to 
collect  the  instalments  for  the  Certificates. 
They  become  living  Thrift  Reminders.  Ten- 
ants of  model  flats  and  dwelling  houses  pay 
weekly  or  monthly  War  Savings  Certificates 
at  the  same  time  they  pay  their  rent. 

That  this  economy  and  savings  idea  has 
gone  home  to  high  and  low  was  proved  by 
an  incident  that  happened  while  I  was  in 
London.  A  man  appeared  before  a  certain 
well-known  judge  to  ask  for  payment  out 
of  a  sum  of  money  that  stood  to  his  credit 
for  compensation  to  "buy  clothes."  The 
judge  reprimanded  him  sharply,  saying, 
"Are  you  not  aware  that  one  of  the  principal 
War  Don'ts  is,  'Don't  buy  clothes :  wear  your 
old  ones.'  "  With  this  he  held  up  his  own 
sleeve  which  showed  considerable  signs  of 
wear.  Then  he  added:  "If  I  can  afford  to 
wear  old  garments,  you  can.  Your  applica- 
tion is  dismissed." 


Saving  for  Victory  149. 

With  saving"  has  come  a  spirit  of  sacri- 
fice as  this  incident  shows :  A  London  house- 
hold comprising  father,  mother  and  two  chil- 
dren moved  into  a  smaller  house,  thus  sav- 
ing fifty  dollars  a  year.  By  becoming  tee- 
totalers they  saved  another  five  shillings 
(one  dollar  and  a  quarter)  and  on  clothes 
the  same  weekly  sum.  They  took  no  holi- 
day this  summer :  ate  meat  only  three  times 
a  week,  abstained  from  sugar  in  their  tea, 
cut  down  short  tramway  rides,  and  the 
father  reduced  his  smoking  allowance.  By 
these  means  they  have  been  able  to  buy  a 
War  Savings  Certificate  every  week. 

Just  as  no  sum  has  been  too  small  to  save, 
so  is  no  act  too  trivial  to  achieve  some  kind 
of  conservation.  People  are  urged  to  carry 
home  their  bundles  from  shops.  This  means 
saving  time  and  labour  in  delivery  and  per- 
mits the  automobile  or  wagon  to  be  used 
in  more  important  work.  I  could  cite  many 
other  instances  of  this  kind. 

Even  the  children  think  and  write  in  terms 
of  economy.  At  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science  held  last  summer  at  Newcastle,  an 
eminent  doctor  read  a  paper  on  'Xondon 


150         The  War  After  the  War 

Children's  Ideas  of  How  to  Help  the  War." 
The  replies  to  his  questions,  which  were  sent 
to  more  than  a  thousand  families,  all  indi- 
cated that  the  juvenile  mind  was  thoroughly- 
soaked  with  the  savings  idea.  Some  of  the 
answers  that  he  quoted  were  very  humorous. 
A  boy  in  Kensington  gave  the  following  rea- 
sons: 

"Eat  less  and  the  soldiers  get  more:  If 
you  make  a  silly  mistake  in  your  arithmetic 
tell  your  mother  not  to  let  you  have  any  jam, 
and  put  the  money  saved  in  the  War  Loan: 
Stop  climbing  lamp-posts  and  save  your 
clothes:  Don't  wear  out  your  boots  by 
striking  sparks  on  the  kerbstones:  If  you 
buy  a  pair  of  boots  you  are  a  traitor  to  your 
country,  because  the  man  who  makes  them 
may  keep  a  soldier  waiting  for  his:  Don't 
use  so  much  soap :  Don't  buy  German-made 
toys." 

The  net  result  of  this  mobilisation  of  the 
forces  of  thrift  is  that  up  to  January  the 
first  50,000,000  War  Certificates  had  been 
sold,  representing  an  investment  of  nearly 
40,000,000  pounds  or  approximately  $200,- 
000,000.  The  striking  feature  about  this 
large  sum  is  that  it  was  reared  with  the  cop- 


Saving  for  Victory  151 

pers  of  working  men  and  women.  "Serve  by 
Saving"  in  England  has  become  more  than  a 
phrase. 

All  this  was  not  achieved,  however,  with- 
out the  most  persistent  publicity.  England 
to-day  is  almost  one  continuous  bill  board. 
The  hoardings  which  blazed  with  the  appeal 
for  recruits  and  the  War  Loan  now  proclaim 
in  word  and  picture  the  virtues  of  saving 
and  the  value  of  the  now  familiar  War  Cer- 
tificates. Likewise  they  embody  a  spectacu- 
lar lesson  in  thrift  for  everybody. 

One  of  the  most  effective  posters  is  headed 
"ARE  YOU  HELPING  THE  GER- 
MANS?" Under  this  caption  is  the  sub- 
scription : 

"You  are  helping  the  Germans  when  you 
use  a  motor  car  for  pleasure :  when  you  buy 
extravagant  clothes :  when  you  employ  more 
servants  than  you  need:  when  you  waste 
coal,  electric  light  or  gas :  when  you  eat  and 
drink  more  than  is  necessary  to  your  health 
and  efficiency. 

"Set  the  right  example,  free  labour  for 
more  useful  purposes,  save  money  and  lend 
it  to  the  Nation  and  so  help  your  Country." 

A  gruesome,  but  none  the  less  striking, 


152         The  War  After  the  War 

poster  is  entitled:     "What  is  the  Price  of 

Your  Arms?" 

Then  comes  the  following  dialogue: 
Civilian:     "How  did  you  lose  your  arm, 

my  lad?" 

Soldier:     "Fighting  for  you,  sir." 
Civilian:     "I'm  grateful  to  you,  my  lad." 
Soldier:     "How  much  are  you  grateful, 

sir?" 

Civilian:     "What  do  you  mean?" 
Soldier:     "How  much  money  have  you 

lent  your  Country?" 

Civilian :     "What  has  that  to  do  with  it?" 
Soldier:     "A  lot.     How  much  is  one  of 

your  arms  worth?" 

Civilian:     "I'd  pay  anything  rather  than 

lose  an  arm." 

Soldier:     "Very  well.     Put  the  price  of 

your  arm,  or  as  much  as  you  can  afford, 

into  Exchequer  Bonds  or  War  Savings  Cer- 
tificates, and  lend  your  money  to  your  Coun- 

try." 

Still  another  is  entitled  "BAD  FORM  IN 

DRESS"  and  reads: 

"The  National  Organising  Committee  for 

War  Savings  appeals  against  extravagance 

in  women's  dress. 


Saving  for  Victory  153 

"Many  women  have  already  recognised 
that  elaboration  and  variety  in  dress  are 
bad  form  in  the  present  crisis,  but  there  is 
still  a  large  section  of  the  community,  both 
amongst  the  rich  and  amongst  the  less  well 
to  do,  who  appear  to  make  little  or  no  dif- 
ference in  their  habits. 

"New  clothes  should  only  be  bought  when 
absolutely  necessary  and  these  should  be 
durable  and  suitable  for  all  occasions.  Lux- 
urious forms,  for  example,  of  hats,  boots, 
shoes,  stockings,  gloves,  and  veils  should  be 
avoided. 

"It  is  essential,  not  only  that  money  should 
be  saved,  but  that  labour  employed  in  the 
clothing  trades  should  be  set  free." 

Harnessed  to  the  Saving  and  Investment 
Campaign  is  a  definite  and  organised  crusade 
against  drink,  ancient  curse  of  the  British 
worker,  male  and  female.  It  is  really  part 
of  the  movement  instituted  by  the  Govern- 
ment at  the  beginning  of  the  war  to  curtail 
liquor  consumption.  One  phase  is  devoted 
to  Anti-Treating,  which  makes  it  impossible 
to  buy  any  one  a  drink  in  England.  This 
was  followed  by  a  drastic  restriction  of 
drinking  hours  in  all  public  places  where 


154         The  War  After  the  War 

alcohol  is  served.  Liquors  may  only  be  ob- 
tained now  between  the  hours  of  12  noon  and 
2:30  in  the  afternoon  and  from  6  to  9:30 
at  night.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  only  tip- 
ple that  you  can  get  at  supper  after  the  play, 
even  in  the  smartest  London  hotels,  is  a  fruit 
cup,  which  is  a  highly  sterilised  concoction. 

The  War  Savings  Committee  has  borne 
down  hard  on  the  drinking  evil  and  Eng- 
land's enormous  yearly  outlay  for  liquor — 
nearly  a  billion  dollars — is  used  as  a  telling 
argument  for  thrift.  A  poster  and  a 
pamphlet  that  you  see  on  all  sides  is  headed, 
''THE  NATION'S  DRINK  BILL,"  and 
reads : 

"The  National  War  Savings  Committee 
calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  sum  now 
being  spent  by  the  Nation  on  alcoholic  liquors 
is  estimated  at 

£182,000,000  a  year. 

"And  appeals  earnestly  for  an  immediate 
and  substantial  reduction  of  this  expendi- 
ture in  view  of  the  urgent  and  increasing 
need  for  economy  in  all  departments  of  the 
Nation's  life. 

"Obviously,  in  the  present  national  emer- 


Saving  for  Victory  155 

gency  a  daily  expenditure  of  practically 
£500,000  on  spirits,  wine  and  beer  can- 
not be  justified  on  the  ground  of  necessity. 
This  expenditure,  therefore,  like  every  other 
form  and  degree  of  expenditure  beyond  what 
is  required  to  maintain  health  and  efficiency 
is  directly  injurious  to  national  interests. 

''Much  of  the  money  spent  on  alcohol 
could  be  saved.  Even  more  important  would 
be  (i)  the  saving  for  more  useful  purposes 
of  large  quantities  of  barley,  rice,  maize  and 
sugar;  and  (2)  the  setting  free  of  much 
labour  urgently  needed  to  meet  the  require- 
ments of  the  Navy  and  the  Army. 

"To  do  without  everything  not  essential 
to  health  and  efficiency  while  the  war  lasts 
is  the  truest  patriotism." 

Under  the  silent  but  none  the  less  con- 
vincing plea  of  these  posters,  backed  up  b}c 
millions  of  leaflets  and  booklets  explaining 
every  phase  of  the  Savings  Campaign,  the 
sale  of  Certificates  rose  steadily.  From 
906,000  in  May  they  jumped  to  nearly  3,- 
000,000  in  June.  But  this  was  not  enough. 
''Let  us  make  one  big  smash  and  see  what 
happens,"  said  the  Committee.  Thereupon 
came  the  idea  for  a  War  Savings  Week, 


156         The  War  After  the  War 

which  was  to  be  a  notable  rallying  of  all 
the  Forces  of  Thrift  and  Saving. 

No  grand  assault  on  any  of  the  actual  bat- 
tle fronts  was  worked  out  with  greater  care 
or  more  elaborate  attention  to  detail  than 
this  Savings  Drive.  No  loophole  to  register 
was  overlooked.  It  was  planned  to  begin 
the  work  on  Sunday,  July  i6th. 

First  of  all,  the  resources  of  the  Church 
were  mobilised.  A  Thrift  sermon  was 
preached  that  Sunday  morning  in  nearly 
every  religious  edifice  in  the  Kingdom.  Fol- 
lowing its  rule  to  leave  nothing  to  chance, 
the  War  Savings  Committee  prepared  a  spe- 
cial book  of  notes  and  texts  for  sermons 
which  was  sent  to  Minister,  Leaders  of 
Brotherhoods  and  Men's  Societies.  Texts 
were  suggested  and  ready-made  and  ready 
to  deliver  sermons  were  included.  One  oj. 
these  sermons  was  called  "The  Honour  of 
the  Willing  Gift,"  another  was  entitled  "The 
Nation  and  Its  Conflict,"  and  its  peculiarly 
appropriate  text  was  "Well  is  it  with  the 
man  that  dealeth  graciously  and  lendeth." 

A  special  address  (in  words  of  one  syl- 
lable) to  the  children  of  England  embody- 
ing the  virtues  of  penny  saving  and  show- 


Saving  for  Victory  157 

ing  how  these  pennies  could  be  made  to  work 
and  earn  more  pennies,  as  shown  in  the  con- 
crete example  of  a  War  Savings  Certificate, 
was  read  by  thousands  of  Sunday  school 
teachers  to  their  classes  throughout  the  na- 
tion. 

Nearly  every  human  being  in  Great 
Britain  got  the  Message  of  Thrift  that  week. 
Boy  Scouts  and  Girl  Guides  went  from  house 
to  house  bearing  copies  of  the  various  kinds 
of  instructive  literature  that  had  been  pre- 
pared for  the  campaign.  Typical  of  the 
thoroughness  of  the  detail  is  the  fact  that 
in  Wales  all  this  material  was  printed  in 
the  Welsh  language.  The  only  country 
where  no  special  efforts  were  made  was  Scot- 
land, where  to  preach  thrift  is  little  less  than 
an  insult. 

For  seven  days  and  nights  the  almost  in- 
cessant onslaught  was  kept  up.  When  the 
smoke  cleared  and  the  count  was  taken,  it 
was  found  that  3,000,000  Certificates  had 
been  sold  during  the  week  while  the  total 
for  the  month  was  10,700,000. 

So  vividly  was  the  phrase  "War  Savings 
Week"  driven  home  that  the  War  Savings 
Committee   decided   instantly   to   capitalise 


158         The  War  After  the  War 

this  new  asset.  In  a  few  days  hundreds  of 
bill  boards  and  fences  throughout  the  King- 
dom blossomed  forth  with  this  sentence, 
painted  in  red,  white  and  blue  letters: 
"Make  Every  Week  National  War  Savings 
Week." 

Not  content  with  splashing  the  bill  boards 
with  the  injunction  to  save,  the  National 
Committee  hit  upon  what  came  to  be  the 
most  popular  medium  for  disseminating  the 
Gospel  of  Thrift.  It  enlisted  the  movies.  A 
film  called  "For  the  Empire"  was  made  by 
a  number  of  well  known  motion  picture  ac- 
tors and  actresses  who  gave  their  services 
free  of  charge. 

It  was  a  moving  and  graphic  story  of  the 
war  showing  how  a  certain  English  lad  vol- 
unteers at  the  outset  and  goes  to  the  front. 
You  get  a  vivid  picture  of  life  in  the  trenches 
shown  in  actual  Vv^ar  scenes.  Then  you  see 
the  young  soldier  fall  while  gallantly  leading 
a  charge:  his  body  is  brought  home  and  he 
is  buried  with  military  honours.  Then  the 
screens  hurls  the  question  at  the  audience: 
"This  man  has  died  for  his  Country.  What 
are  you  doing  for  the  Nation  in  its  hour  of 
trial?"     Now  follows  a  vivid  lesson  in  how 


Saving  for  Victory  159 

to  save  and  buy  a  War  Savings  Certificate. 
This  film  has  been  shown  in  2500  cinema 
theatres  up  to  the  first  of  the  year  and  was 
booked  to  be  shown  in  1000  more  within  the 
next  few  months. 

So  widespread  has  the  Thrift  movement 
become  that  the  War  Savings  Committee 
now  pubHshes  its  own  monthly  magazine 
called  War  Savings.  The  first  issue  ap- 
peared on  September  first  and  included  such 
timely  articles  as  ''The  Might  of  a  Mite," 
a  lesson  in  penny  building:  ''The  Final 
Mobilisation,"  which  showed  how  the  last 
£100,000,000  would  win  the  war:  a  third 
article  explained  the  Economy  Exhibition 
now  being  held  all  over  Great  Britain  as 
part  of  the  Thrift  crusade.  There  was  also 
an  article  on  the  War  Saving  movement  by 
Reginald  McKenna,  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer, and  a  very  illuminating  appeal, 
"Every  Household  Must  Help  Win  the 
War." 

This  leads  to  one  of  the  most  instructive 
branches  of  the  whole  campaign,  the  one  de- 
voted to  the  elimination  of  waste  in  the 
household.  Under  the  direction  of  the  Patri- 
otic Food  League  a  voluminous  and  helpful 


160         Tlie  War  After  the  War 

literature  has  been  prepared  and  distributed. 
One  booklet  devoted  to  "Waste  in  the  Well- 
to-do  Household"  shows  how  gas,  coal  and 
electric  light  bills,  and  the  whole  cost  of  liv- 
ing can  be  reduced.  Another  called  "House- 
hold Economies"  has  helpful  hints  for  mis- 
tress and  maid:  a  third  is  "The  Best  Foods 
in  War-Time."  A  stirring  plea  was  made  to 
every  household  in  the  shape  of  a  card  sur- 
mounted by  a  picture  of  Lord  Kitchener  and 
containing  his  famous  warning  to  the  Eng- 
lish people:  "Either  the  civilian  popula- 
tion must  go  short  of  many  things  to  which 
it  is  accustomed  in  times  of  peace,  or  our 
armies  must  go  short  of  munitions  and  other 
things  indispensable  to  them."  Below  this 
quotation  was  the  stirring  question: 

"Which  is  it  to  be :  economy  in  the  house- 
hold or  shortage  in  the  Army  and  Navy?" 

Under  the  title  of  "War  Savings  in  the 
Home"  a  plan  of  campaign  has  been  sent  to 
every  household  in  England  for  operation 
during  the  whole  period  of  war.  Among 
other  things  it  urges  every  family  to  give 
up  meat  for  at  least  one  day  in  the  week, 
and  in  any  case  to  use  it  only  once  a  day. 
Margarine  is  recommended  instead  of  but- 


Saving  for  Victory  161 

ter.  Home  baking  is  strenuously  suggested. 
It  is  shown  how  reduction  in  personal  and 
household  expenditure  can  be  effected,  for 
example,  in  the  laundry  by  using  curtains 
and  linen  that  can  be  washed  in  the  house. 
A  special  appeal  to  dispense  with  starched 
and  ornamental  lingerie  is  made.  In  these 
and  many  other  ways  the  style  of  living  is 
simplified  so  that  the  amount  of  domestic 
service  in  every  home  is  greatly  cut  down 
and  much  labour  set  free  for  war  work  and 
general  production. 

Indeed,  no  phase  of  Life  or  Work  has 
escaped  the  Search-Light  of  the  benevolent 
Inquisition  which  has  wTought  Conservation 
out  of  Waste. 

It  has  a  larger  significance  than  merely 
changing  habits  and  converting  pounds  and 
pence  into  guns  and  shells.  It  means  that 
England  is  creating  a  Sovereignty  of  Small 
Investors,  thus  setting  up  the  safeguard  that 
is  the  salvation  of  any  land.  The  War  Sav- 
ings Certificate  will  have  a  successor  in  the 
shape  of  a  more  permanent  but  equally  stable 
Government  bond. 

When  all  is  said  and  done  you  find  that 
huge  reservoirs  of  Savings  at  work  form 


162         The  War  After  the  War 

a  country's  real  bulwark.  Through  invest- 
ment in  small,  accessible,  and  marketable  se- 
curities a  people  become  independent  and 
therefore  more  efficient  and  productive.  It 
mobilises  money. 

Behind  all  the  spectacular  publicity  that 
has  swept  hundreds  of  millions  of  British 
shillings  into  safe  and  profitable  employment 
is  a  Lesson  of  Preparedness  that  America 
may  well  heed.  It  means  a  form  of  Na- 
tional Service  that  is  just  as  vital  to  the  gen- 
eral welfare  as  physical  training  for  actual 
conflict.  A  nation  trained  to  save  is  a  na- 
tion equipped  to  meet  the  shock  of  economic 
crisis  which  is  more  potent  than  the  attack 
of  armed  forces. 

What  does  it  all  mean?  Simply  this: 
no  man  can  touch  the  English  thrift  cam- 
paign without  seeing  in  it  another  evidence 
of  a  great  nation's  grim  determination  to 
win,  whatever  the  sacrifice. 

The  British  people  at  home  have  come  to 
realise  that  by  personal  economy  and  denial 
they  can  serve  their  country  and  their  cause 
just  as  effectively  as  those  w^ho  fight  amid 
the  blare  of  battle  abroad.  They  are  ani- 
mated by  a  New  Patriotism  that  is  both  prac- 


Saving  for  Victory  163 

tical  and  self-effacing.  It  is  giving  the  Eng- 
lishman generally  a  higher  sense  of  public 
devotion :  it  is  making  him  a  better  and  more 
productive  human  unit:  it  is  equipping  the 
nation  to  meet  the  drastic  economic  ordeal 
of  to-morrow. 

If  this  lesson  of  conservation  is  heeded 
after  the  war  and  becomes  a  feature  of  the 
permanent  British  life,  then  the  Great  Con- 
flict will  almost  have  been  worth  its  dreadful 
cost  in  blood  and  treasure.  He  who  saves 
now  will  not  have  saved  in  vain. 


Yl—The  Price  of  Glory 


WHEN  John  Jones  of  the  U.  S.  A. 
puts  his  thousand  dollars  into 
an  English,  French,  Russian  or 
German  bond  he  becomes  part 
and  parcel  of  the  mightiest  financial  struc- 
ture ever  dedicated  to  a  single  purpose.  He 
cannot  tell  how  his  funds  will  be  used.  They 
may  buy  a  few  hundred  shells,  clothe  a  thou- 
sand soldiers,  feed  a  battalion  or  build  a 
trench.  All  he  knows  is  that  his  mite  joins 
the  continuous  and  colossal  stream  of  ex- 
pense that  makes  up  the  Red  Wage  of  War. 
Now  if  John  Jones  employs  his  money  in 
the  stock  or  bond  of  a  railroad,  corporation, 
or  public  utility  enterprise  he  can  find  out 
almost  precisely  what  it  does,  for  it  lays 
down  a  track,  provides  new  equipment  or 
builds  a  power  house.  The  investment,  in 
short,  represents  something  that  produces 
more  wealth. 

War,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  gigantic  en- 
gine of  destruction.  Instead  of  building  up, 
it  tears  down.    It  is  a  monster  machine  con- 

164 


The  Price  of  Glory  165 

secrated  to  waste.  The  only  possible  divi- 
dend can  be  peace. 

The  cost  of  the  European  conflict  has  a 
deeper  interest  for  us  than  mere  curiosity 
over  staggering  statistics.  The  reason  is 
that  we  have  joined  the  Paymaster's  Corps. 
In  other  words,  we  have  backed  up  our  sym- 
pathy with  cash.  We  are  silent  partners  in 
the  costliest  and  deadliest  of  all  businesses. 

Up  to  the  present  stupendous  struggle  and 
with  the  exception  of  the  Russo-Japanese 
War  in  which  we  floated  several  issues  for 
the  little  yellow  men,  we  have  had  no  defi- 
nite economic  part  in  the  wars  that  shook 
other  nations.  The  losses  in  money  and  in 
men  fell  on  the  combatants. 

This  war,  which  has  shattered  so  many 
precedents,  has  drawn  the  United  States  out 
of  its  one-time  aloofness.  To  the  dignity  of 
World  Trader  we  have  added  the  twin  dis- 
tinction of  World  Banker.  Already  we  have 
poured  out  practically  two  billions  of  dol- 
lars for  securities  and  credits  of  the  warring 
countries.  To  this  must  be  added  an  even 
greater  sum  representing  our  enormous  war 
exports.  The  price,  therefore,  of  whatever 
freedom  emerges  from  these  years  of  blood- 


166         The  War  After  the  War 

shed  intimately  touches  thousands  of  Ameri- 
can pocketbooks  in  one  way  or  another. 

What  is  the  final  toll  that  Battle  will  take : 
more  important  than  this,  what  is  the  future 
of  the  treasure  that  we  have  laid  on  its  Con- 
suming Altar? 

Before  making  any  analysis  of  the  Ameri- 
can stake  in  the  cost  of  the  European  War, 
it  is  important  to  find  out  first  just  how 
much  money  has  been  expended  and  what 
the  likelihood  of  future  outlay  will  be. 
Like  every  other  phase  of  the  stupendous 
upheaval  this  one  is  both  speculative  and 
problematical. 

To  deal  with  these  European  War  figures 
is  to  flirt  with  Titanic  Numerals.  They  are 
more  the  Playthings  of  the  Gods  than  mat- 
ters for  mere  mortals  to  juggle  with. 

Up  to  the  first  of  January,  191 7,  the  total 
military  expenses  of  both  sides  had  reached 
approximately  $61,000,000,000.  It  is  only 
when  you  reduce  this  enormous  sum  to 
terms  that  every  man  and  woman  can  under- 
stand that  you  begin  to  get  some  idea  of  the 
amazing  cost  of  conflict. 

The  amount  of  money  expended  for  direct 
war  purposes  alone  since  August  i,  19 14, 


The  Price  of  Glory  167 

is  equal  to  three  times  the  par  value  capital- 
ization of  all  the  American  railroads.  It 
represents  fifty  times  the  net  national  debt 
of  the  United  States:  eighteen  times  the 
amount  of  money  in  actual  circulation  in 
this  country:  and  eleven  times  the  total  de- 
posits in  all  our  savings  banks.  With  it  you 
could  build  146  Panama  Canals  or  pay  for 
the  Napoleonic,  Crimean,  Russo-Japanese, 
South  African  and  American  Civil  Wars 
and  still  have  a  surplus  of  $34,000,000,000 
left.  Such  is  the  New  and  High  Cost  of 
War! 

The  price  of  glory  is  being  constantly  ad- 
vanced. The  expenditures  for  the  first  year 
of  the  war  were  $17,500,000,000:  for  the 
second  they  had  increased  to  $28,000,000,- 
000 :  the  estimate  for  the  third  year,  to  end 
August  I,  1917,  at  the  present  rate  of  spend- 
ing is  about  $33,000,000,000.  This  means 
that  by  the  time  the  next  harvest  moon 
shines  (and  no  man  in  Europe  to-day  doubts 
that  it  will  gleam  on  carnage),  the  war  will 
have  represented  a  sacrifice  for  military 
purposes  alone  of  $78,500,000,000. 

Taking  the  daily  cost  of  the  war  you  find 
that    England    is    $25,000,000    poorer    for 


168         The  War  After  the  War 

every  twenty-four  hours  that  pass:  that 
France  must  check  out  $20,000,000:  Russia 
$16,000,000:  Italy  $5,000,000.  Little  Rou- 
mania  is  cutting  h  ,r  war  expenditure  teeth 
at  the  rate  of  $1,000,000  per  diem. 

Cross  the  frontier  (for  war  expense  is 
no  respecter  of  cause  or  creed),  and  Ger- 
many is  "discovered,"  as  they  say  in  play- 
books,  spending  $17,500,000  every  day: 
Austria,  Turkey  and  Bulgaria,  $11,000,000. 
Thus  between  sunrises  that  break  over  these 
warring  hosts  very  nearly  $100,000,000  has 
gone  up  in  smoke,  splinters  or  ruin  of  some 
kind,  or  the  upkeep  of  fighting. 

Since  England's  cost  each  day  is  heavier 
than  any  of  the  other  countries  at  war,  due 
to  the  fact  that  she  is  Financial  First  Aid  to 
most  of  her  Allies  and  is  maintaining  a  fleet 
almost  equal  to  all  the  others  combined,  let 
us  reduce  her  enormous  daily  war  bill  of 
$25,000,000  to  simpler  form.  It  means  that 
participation  in  the  greatest  of  all  wars  is 
costing  her  $1,410,666  an  hour,  $17,361  a 
minute  and  a  little  over  $289  a  second.  At 
this  rate  of  waste  John  D.  Rockefeller 
would  be  bankrupt  in  forty  days;  Andrew 
Carnegie  would  be  in  the  bread  line  in  ten. 


The  Price  of  Glory  169 

The  sum  is  greater  than  the  entire  net  pub- 
He  debt  of  Chicago;  it  equals  the  assessed 
valuation  of  all  the  taxable  property  in 
Poughkeepsie,  New  York. 

Work  out  this  immense  daily  outlay  from 
still  another  angle  and  these  striking  facts 
develop:  the  war  is  costing  at  the  rate  of  29 
cents  a  day  for  every  inhabitant  of  the 
United  Kingdom:  31  cents  for  every  indi- 
vidual in  France:  22  cents  for  every  person 
in  the  Kaiser's  domain,  and  6  cents  for  each 
human  unit  in  the  Russian  Empire. 

Yet  this  well-nigh  overwhelming  rush  of 
figures  only  accounts  for  the  actual  cost  of 
hostilities.  By  this  I  mean  arms  and  arma- 
ment, food  and  military  supplies,  the  con- 
struction, maintenance  and  renewal  of  fleets, 
the  cost  of  transport  and  the  pay  of  soldiers 
and  sailors. 

To  the  vast  sum  already  recorded  must 
be  added  the  loss  registered  by  the  destruc- 
tion of  cities,  towns  and  villages,  the  sink- 
ing of  ships,  the  wiping  out  of  factories, 
warehouses,  bridges,  roads  and  railways. 

Then,  too,  you  must  allow  for  the  almost 
incalculable  productive  loss  due  to  the  kill- 
ing and  maiming  of  millions  of  men:  the 


170         The  War  After  the  War 

shrinkage  of  agricultural  yields  and  the 
more  or  less  general  dislocation  of  the  ma- 
chinery of  output.  All  these  factors  pile  up 
a  total,  the  calculation  of  which  would 
almost  cause  a  compound  fracture  of  the 
brain.  Sufficient  to  say  it  puts  a  terrific  hu- 
man and  financial  tax  on  coming  genera- 
tions and  we  in  America  will  feel  its  efifects 
when  the  world  begins  to  readjust  itself  to 
the  altered  social  and  economic  conditions 
which  will  come  with  peace. 

Of  course  the  inevitable  question  arises: 
Who  is  paying  the  Scarlet  Piper?  In  seek- 
ing the  answer  you  encounter  for  the  first 
time  America's  intimate  and  all-important 
part  in  the  costly  drama  now  being  unfolded 
to  the  tune  of  billions.  She  sits  in  the  ar- 
moured box-office  with  the  Treasurers  of  the 
embattled  nations. 

At  the  outset  of  the  war  all  the  belligerent 
countries  believed  that  they  could  finance 
their  needs  without  seeking  neutral  aid. 
Less  than  a  year  was  enough  to  dispel  this 
delusion.  Although  England  and  France 
immediately  voted  immense  credits  they 
were  not  long  in  finding  out  that  they  must 
back  up  their  unprecedented  mobilisation  of 


The  Price  of  Glory  171 

I  — — ■ 

resources  with  outside  help.  They  came  to 
us. 

When  the  great  Anglo-French  loan  of 
$500,000,000  was  first  discussed  as  a  pos- 
sible American  financial  feat,  people  over 
here  began  to  wonder  why  Great  Britain 
and  France,  whose  combined  wealth  ex- 
ceeds that  of  all  the  other  nations  at  war, 
should  want  overseas  assistance.  Since  the 
reason  for  this  loan  as  well  as  the  disposi- 
tion of  proceeds  are  practically  the  same  as 
that  of  most  of  the  other  Allied  issues  in 
this  country  in  which  thousands  of  our  in- 
vestors have  participated,  it  is  well  worth 
explaining  because  it  also  carries  with  it  a 
lesson  in  international  barter.     Here  it  is: 

Before  the  war  our  foreign  trade  was 
growing  fast.  England  and  France,  in  par- 
ticular, were  good  customers  for  our  wheat 
and  other  foodstuffs,  iron  and  cotton  manu- 
factures, oil  and  automobiles.  In  exchange 
we  imported  the  product  of  many  European 
factories. 

Business  relations  between  nations  are 
not  settled  like  transactions  between  indi- 
viduals and  firms,  that  is,  with  checks  or 
cash.    They  are  settled  by  balances.     Eng- 


172         The  War  After  the  War 

land's  imports  from  the  United  States,  for 
example,  are  paid  by  her  exports  to  us.  Us- 
ually exports  and  imports  so  nearly  balance 
that  the  difference  is  paid  by  gold  or  with 
the  temporary  use  of  bank  credit.  There- 
fore it  is  not  a  question  of  actual  money  but 
of  exchange  and  this  foreign  exchange  is  a 
commodity  whose  value  fluctuates  with  sup- 
ply and  demand. 

Along  came  the  war.  Millions  of  arti- 
sans in  France  and  England  were  with- 
drawn from  lathe  and  loom  to  fight  in  the 
battle  line.  What  workers  remained  at 
their  posts  had  to  produce  war  supplies.  Yet 
civilian  and  soldier  needed  food,  clothing 
and  arms.  The  demand  for  our  products 
increased  and  the  United  States  suddenly 
became  the  work-shop  and  the  granary  of 
the  world. 

The  Allies,  in  control  of  the  seas,  became 
our  principal  foreign  customers.  American 
exports  soared:  those  of  France  and  Eng- 
land declined  correspondingly.  A  huge  bal- 
ance of  trade — the  biggest  in  our  history — 
swung  to  our  favour. 

This  balance  of  trade  had  to  be  settled, 
but  on  an  abnormal  basis.    What  was  ordi- 


The  Price  of  Glory  173 

narily  a  comparatively  trivial  matter  of  a 
few  millions  suddenly  became  an  item  of 
many  millions  and  it  was  all  owed  on  one 
side.  The  demand  for  exchange  on  New 
York  greatly  exceeded  the  supply  and  the 
inevitable  dislocation  happened.  England 
and  France  had  to  pay  a  drastic  premium 
on  the  American  dollar.  The  English 
pound,  normally  rated  $4.86,  dropped  to 
$4.50;  the  franc,  ordinarily  worth  19.29 
cents,  fell  to  16.94  cents.  This  shrinkage 
in  values  w^as  not  due  to  any  impairment  of 
the  resource  or  wealth  of  the  Allies  but  be- 
cause the  machinery  of  international  pay- 
ment works  automatically  and  unsenti- 
mentally. 

Here  was  a  crisis  that  without  aid  from 
us  might  have  eventually  cost  us  dear. 
Rather  than  submit  to  the  terrific  drain  on 
the  exchange  value  of  the  pound  and  franc, 
England  and  France  could  have  set  about 
emulating  the  example  of  Germany  and  be- 
come self-sufficient.  It  was  not  a  month's 
work  or  even  a  year's  work,  but  ultimately 
it  would  have  made  these  countries  more  in- 
dependent of  the  United  States  after  the 
war  is  over. 


174         The  War  After  the  War 

Of  course  England  and  France  could 
have  met  the  situation  by  shipping  gold. 
Each  had  a  large  reserve  but  the  United 
States  had  all  the  gold  it  wanted,  and  still 
has.  Besides,  in  such  an  emergency  gold  is 
an  inert  and  unproductive  commodity. 

Again,  the  Allies  might  have  "dumped" 
their  American  securities  representing  an 
investment  of  over  three  billions  of  dollars, 
which  would  have  upset  the  American  stock 
market  and  sent  prices  down.  Either  one 
of  these  performances  would  have  done  us 
no  good. 

It  was  important,  therefore,  for  the  bene- 
fit of  all  interest  involved,  that  the  Allies 
establish  a  credit  in  the  United  States  that 
would  enable  them  to  buy  freely  and  re- 
move the  costly  handicap  on  American  ex- 
change. In  a  word,  instead  of  having  to 
pay  their  bills  through  an  intricate  mechan- 
ism that  rose  and  fell  with  the  tides  of 
trade  and  put  a  premium  on  trading  with 
us,  a  medium  was  needed  that  would  re- 
store the  whole  economic  trade  balance.  It 
was  as  essential  to  us  as  to  our  customers. 

Hence  the  Anglo-French  Five  Hundred 
Million  Dollar  Loan  was  floated  and  Uncle 


The  Price  of  Glory  175 

Sam  became  a  war  banker.  This  loan,  how- 
ever, was  nothing  more  or  less  than  the 
setting  up  of  a  credit  of  half  a  billion  dol- 
lars for  England  and  France  in  the  United 
States.  To  put  it  in  another  way,  it  is  just 
as  if  the  two  Allies  had  deposited  this 
sum  in  an  American  bank  and  then  drew 
checks  against  it  for  goods  and  raw  ma- 
terials made  or  mined  in  America.  In  a 
word,  we  lent  to  ourselves. 

Put  out  at  a  time  when  money  was  scarce, 
the  loan  would  have  been  unpatriotic  and 
uneconomic.  But  our  banks  were  filled  with 
idle  cash:  everywhere  capital  sought  safe 
and  profitable  employment.  Now  you  begin 
to  see  why  these  allied  loans  are  really  good 
business  in  more  ways  than  one. 

What  is  our  financial  stake  in  the  cost  of 
the  war :  what  does  it  yield :  how  is  it  safe- 
guarded? 

Clearly  to  understand  this  whole  situation 
you  must  know  just  how  these  foreign 
bonds  are  put  out.  There  are  two  kinds. 
One  is  the  internal  loan  issued  in  the  money 
of  the  country  whose  name  it  bears.  This 
means  that  if  it  is  a  French  bond  it  is  in 
terms  of  francs:  if  English  it  calls  for  pay- 


176         The  War  After  the  War 

ment  in  pounds  sterling:  if  Russian,  in  rou- 
bles: if  German,  in  marks.  An  external 
loan,  on  the  other  hand,  is  issued  in  the 
money  of  the  country  in  which  it  is  floated. 
The  Anglo-French  loan  is  an  example  of 
this  kind  because  both  principal  and  interest 
are  to  be  paid  in  United  States  gold  coin. 
These  internal  and  external  loans  may  be 
direct  obligations  of  the  issuing  govern- 
ments or  may  be  secured  by  collateral. 

There  is  still  a  third  medium  for  the  em- 
ployment of  American  money  in  the  war. 
Technically  it  is  known  as  bank  credit. 
Through  this  agency,  foreign  firms  make 
deposits  of  money  or  collateral  in  the  na- 
tional banks  of  their  respective  countries 
and  purchase  goods  in  America  through 
credits  thus  established  for  them  in  a  group 
of  New  York  banks  or  trust  companies. 
The  acceptances  for  the  goods  thus  bought 
become  negotiable  documents  and  are  bought 
and  sold  by  institutions  and  investors  at  a 
discount. 

This  evidence  of  debt  is  not  the  kind  of 
foreign  investment  suitable  for  the  man  or 
woman  with  savings  to  employ  because  it  is 


The  Price  of  Glory  177 

more  or  less  a  banking  transaction.  These 
credits  usually  net  about  63^  per  cent. 

With  the  exception  of  a  comparatively 
small  amount  of  German  and  Austrian 
Bonds  bought  in  the  main  by  natives  of 
these  two  countries  for  purely  sentimental 
and  patriotic  reasons,  the  entire  bulk  of 
European  loans  placed  in  America  is  for 
the  Allied  countries,  principally  England 
and  France  who  are  our  heaviest  customers 
in  trade. 

The  largest  foreign  loan  brought  out  here 
so  far  is  the  Anglo-French  5  per  cent  Ex- 
ternal Loan  which  was  negotiated  through 
J.  P.  Morgan  &  Company — Fiscal  Agents 
for  the  Allies  over  here — by  the  Commission 
headed  by  Lord  Reading  and  Sir  Edward 
Holden.  It  is  the  Joint  and  Several  Obliga- 
tion of  the  Governments  of  the  United 
Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  and 
the  French  Republic,  is  dated  October  15, 
191 5,  and  is  due  five  years  after  that  date. 
It  ranks  first  amongst  the  foreign  war  ob- 
ligations of  these  countries. 

This  was  the  first  big  credit  arranged  by 
England  or  France  in  the  United  States  and 
the  proceeds  were  used,  in  the  manner  that 


178         The  War  After  the  War 

I  have  already  described,  for  the  purchase 
of  American  goods  and  to  stabilize  the  for- 
eign exchange.  These  bonds  which  have 
had  a  very  wide  sale  in  America  were 
brought  out  at  98  and  interest  and  at  the 
time  of  issue  represented  an  investment  that 
paid  nearly  ^y2  per  cent. 

These  bonds,  I  might  add,  are  convertible 
at  the  option  of  the  holder  on  any  date  not 
later  than  April  15,  1920,  or  provided  that 
notice  is  given  not  later  than  this  date,  par 
for  par,  into  15-25  Year  Joint  and  Several 
4^  per  cent  bonds  of  the  Governments  of 
the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  and  the  French  Republic.  Such  4^ 
per  cent  bonds,  payable,  principal  and  in- 
terest, in  United  States  gold  coin,  in  New 
York  City,  and  free  from  deduction  for  any 
present  or  future  British  or  French  taxes, 
will  mature  October  15,  1940,  but  will  be 
redeemable,  at  par  and  accrued  interest,  in 
whole  or  in  part,  on  any  interest  date  not 
earlier  than  October  15,  1930,  upon  three 
months'  notice. 

The  equity  behind  these  bonds  is  the  good 
name,  wealth  and  taxing  power  of  the  issu- 
ing countries.     The  interest  on  this  loan 


The  Price  of  Glory  179 

equals  only  one-fifth  of  one  per  cent  of  the 
total  estimated  income  of  the  British  people 
in  1 9 14.  It  is  slightly  more  than  one-third 
of  one  per  cent  of  the  French  Republic  in 
1914. 

Between  this  loan  and  the  next  large  bor- 
rowing by  England  or  France  in  the  United 
States  occurred  an  event  of  significance  to 
the  American  investor  interested  in  the  se- 
curities of  foreign  nations.  The  Anglo- 
French  loan,  as  you  know,  was  simply  the 
promise  to  pay  of  two  great  countries  whose 
Government  Bonds  at  home  represented  the 
last  word  in  unshakable  security. 

But  when  England  and  France  stepped  up 
to  our  money  counters  again,  Uncle  Sam 
put  sentiment  aside  and  became  a  pawn 
broker.  "I  think  you  are  all  right,"  he 
said,  "but  you  are  in  a  war  that  may  last 
a  very  long  time  and  I  must  have  collate- 
ral." 

To  English  pride  this  was  a  terrific  jolt. 
I  happened  to  be  in  England  at  the  time 
and  I  recall  the  astonishment  of  no  less  a 
distinguished  individual  than  the  Chancel- 
lor of  the  British  Exchequer.  It  was  un- 
believable  that   any  nation   could   demand 


180         The  War  After  the  War 

greater  security  than  the  good  name  of  the 
Empire.  *'If  the  elder  J.  P.  Morgan  were 
aUve  this  would  never  have  happened,"  said 
the  London  bankers.  They  knew  that  the 
Grizzled  Old  Lion  of  American  Finance  al- 
ways held  that  character  was  the  best  col- 
lateral. In  the  war  emergency,  however, 
many  American  bankers  thought  to  the  con- 
trary and  the  net  result  was  that  with  all 
external  loans  thereafter  England  and 
France  have  been  forced  to  dig  into  their 
strong  boxes  and  do  what  any  individual 
does  when  he  borrows  money — put  up  a 
good  margin  of  security. 

An  illustration  of  this  secured  obligation 
of  the  British  Government  is  the  issue  of 
$300,000,000  Five  and  a  Half  Per  Cent 
Gold  Notes  dated  November  i,  19 16.  Prin- 
cipal and  interest  are  payable  without  de- 
duction of  any  English  tax  in  New  York 
and  in  United  States  gold  coin.  The  holder 
of  these  notes,  however,  has  the  option  to 
get  his  money  in  London  but  at  a  fixed  rate 
of  $4.86  per  pound  sterling,  the  normal 
value  of  the  pound  in  peace  time.  Since  the 
pound  sterling  at  the  time  this  article  is 


The  Price  of  Glory  181 

written  is  quoted  at  $4.76,  this  is  a  decided 
advantage. 

The  new  English  loan  is  secured  by  stocks 
and  bonds  whose  total  market  value  is  not 
less  than  $360,000,000.  One  group  of  this 
collateral  consists  of  stocks,  bonds  and 
other  obligations  of  American  corporations 
and  the  obligation,  either  as  maker  or  guar- 
antor, of  the  Government  of  the  Dominion 
of  Canada,  the  Colony  of  Newfoundland 
and  Canadian  Provinces  and  Municipalities. 
The  second  group  included  obligations  of 
Australia,  Union  of  South  Africa,  New 
Zealand,  Argentina,  Chili,  Cuba,  Japan, 
Egypt,  India  and  a  group  of  English  Rail- 
way Companies.  I  enumerate  this  collateral 
to  show  the  inroads  upon  British  securities 
that  increasing  war  cost  is  making.  This 
collateral  must  always  show  a  market  value 
margin  of  twenty  per  cent  above  the  amount 
of  the  loan.  It  means  that  should  there  be 
any  slump  the  English  Government  must 
supply  additional  security. 

This  issue  was  brought  out  in  two  forms. 
Half  of  the  loan  is  in  Three  Year  Notes  due 
November  i,  19 19,  which  were  issued  at 
99^  and  interest  and  yielding  over  5.75  per 


182         The  War  After  the  War 

cent:  the  other  half  is  in  Five  Year  Notes 
due  November  i,  1921,  brought  out  at  98>4 
and  interest  and  yielding  about  5.85  per 
cent.  These  Notes  are  redeemable  at  the 
option  of  the  Government  at  various  interest 
dates  between  191 7  and  1920  at  prices  rang- 
ing from  loi  to  105  and  interest. 

Having  established  the  precedent  of  a 
secured  loan,  all  succeeding  English  issues 
in  this  country  have  been  backed  up  with 
ample  collateral.  These  bonds  have  a  ready 
market,  an  important  detail  that  the  invest- 
or must  not  overlook  in  purchasing  foreign 
securities. 

Now  turn  to  the  borrowings  of  France  in 
the  United  States.  With  this  great  nation, 
whose  middle  name  is  Thrift,  Uncle  Sam 
was  no  respecter  of  past  performance.  For 
the  one  separate  French  external  loan  he 
exacted  his  pound  of  collateral.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact  it  amounted  to  nearly  a  ton. 

I  refer  to  the  issue  of  $100,000,000  Three 
Year  Five  Per  Cent  Gold  Notes  bearing  the 
date  of  August  i,  1916.  To  float  this  loan 
the  American  Foreign  Securities  Company 
was  formed  which  arranged  to  lend  the 
French  Government  $100,000,000.     As  se- 


The  Price  of  Glory  183 

curity  the  Company — it  was  merely  a  group 
of  American  bankers,  required  France  to 
deposit  stocks  and  bonds  having  a  value  at 
prevailing  market  and  exchange  rate  of 
$120,000,000.  Should  the  value  of  these 
securities  fall  below  this  sum  they  must  be 
replenished  until  there  is  a  margin  of  twenty 
per  cent  in  excess  of  the  principal  of  the 
loan. 

These  securities  throw  an  interesting  side- 
light upon  the  resource  of  the  French  Re- 
public and  its  ability  to  borrow  desirable 
collateral  from  patriotic  citizens.  They  in- 
clude obligations  of  the  Government  of  Ar- 
gentine, Sweden,  Norway,  Denmark,  Swit- 
zerland, Holland,  Uruguay,  Egypt,  Brazil, 
Spain,  and  Quebec.  The  most  picturesque 
parcel  in  the  lot  is  $11,000,000  in  Suez 
Canal  shares.  This  stock  is  one  of  the  cor- 
porate heirlooms  of  France  and  is  very 
closely  held.  It  not  only  pays  a  large  divi- 
dend but  shares  in  the  profits  of  the  com- 
pany which  in  peace  times  are  big.  The 
fact  that  France  should  put  these  prize  se- 
curities in  ''hock"  is  evidence  of  her  deter- 
mination to  keep  her  credit  absolutely  above 
reproach. 


184         The  War  After  the  War 

The  Three  Year  French  Notes  were 
brought  out  at  98  and  interest  and  at  the 
time  of  issue  yielded  about  5.73  per  cent. 

But  all  direct  French  borrowing  in  Amer- 
ica has  not  been  on  the  pound  of  flesh  basis. 
For  now  we  come  to  what  might  well  be 
called  The  Loan  of  Sentiment.  It  is  the 
$50,000,000  City  of  Paris  Five  Year  Six 
Per  Cent  Gold  Bond  Issue  dated  October 
15,  1916.  It  gave  Americans  the  oppor- 
tunity to  pay  a  substantial  tribute  of  affec- 
tionate gratitude  for  happy  hours  spent  in 
the  Queen  City  of  Europe  and  have  the 
prospect  of  a  desirable  dividend  at  the 
same  time.  Here  is  a  piece  of  foreign 
financing  with  a  distinction  and  a  back- 
ground all  its  own.  Aside  from  its  purely 
sentimental  phase  it  is  perhaps  the  only  loan 
floated  in  America  since  the  war  which  is 
dedicated  to  construction  instead  of  destruc- 
tion. The  proceeds  are  to  be  used  to  reim- 
burse the  City  of  Paris  for  expenditures  in 
building  hospitals  and  making  other  neces- 
sary humanitarian  improvements  and  to  pro- 
vide a  sinking  fund  to  meet  similar  disburse- 
ments.    Amid  the  incessant  hate  and  pas- 


The  Price  of  Glory  185 

sion  of  war  it  is  pleasant  to  find  this  back 
water  of  cooling  relief. 

Ivike  most  of  the  foreign  issues  made  dur- 
ing the  war  it  follows  the  highly  intelligent 
European  practice  of  putting  out  loans  in 
small  denominations  so  as  to  be  within  the 
reach  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people. 
These  bonds  may  be  had  in  multiples  of 
$ioo  and  upward.  The  Government  of 
France  has  agreed  to  permit  the  exportation 
of  sufficient  gold  to  permit  the  payment  of 
principal  and  interest  in  the  yellow  metal  in 
New  York.  The  loan — the  only  external 
one  of  the  City  of  Paris — was  brought  out 
at  98^  and  interest,  which  would  make  an 
investment  of  6.30  per  cent.  In  addition  to 
this  yield  as  an  investment  there  is  the  pos- 
sibility of  profit  in  exchange  in  view  of  the 
option  to  collect  principal  and  interest  at  the 
rate  of  5.50  francs  per  dollar  instead  of  the 
normal  rate  of  exchange  before  the  war. 

This  statement  of  possible  exchange 
profits  leads  us  to  one  of  the  conspicuous 
features  of  the  latest  National  French  Loan, 
which  although  internal  in  form  has  been 
put  within  the  ken  of  the  American  in- 
vestor. 


186         The  War  After  the  War 

Fully  to  comprehend  it  you  must  know 
that  in  ordinary  times  a  dollar  in  American 
money  is  worth  5.18  francs.  On  account  of 
the  dislocation  in  foreign  exchange  the  value 
of  a  dollar  in  French  money  has  risen  to 
approximately  5.85  francs.  Therefore  when 
you  buy  a  French  security  in  terms  of  francs 
for  American  dollars  you  get  a  great  deal 
more  for  your  money  than  you  would  have 
received  before  the  war.  Hence  the  pos- 
sibility of  profit  when  francs  return  to  nor- 
mal is  large. 

The  National  French  Loan  was  sold  to 
American  investors  at  an  exchange  rate 
of  5.90,  which  means  that  every  dollar 
you  employ  gives  you  a  principal  of  5.90 
francs.  On  this  basis  the  price  for  the  se- 
curity issued  at  a  par  of  100  would  be  87}^, 
which  would  make  the  direct  yield  over  5.70 
per  cent.  Should  exchange  return  to  nor- 
mal, the  subscription  price  would  be  equiva- 
lent to  75/^,  which  would  make  the  direct 
yield  over  6^  per  cent. 

Translating  this  loan  into  terms  of  money, 
you  find  that  for  every  $14.83  you  invest 
you  get  100  francs  capital:  for  every 
$148.30  you  get   1000  francs  capital:   for 


The  Price  of  Glory  187 

$741.52  you  receive  5000  francs  capital.  If 
French  exchange  should  return  to  normal 
and  the  securities  sell  at  the  issue  price — 
87^ — the  investor  would  receive  $16.89  for 
every  100  francs  of  capital:  $168.88  for 
every  1000  francs:  $844.39  ^^^  every  5000 
francs.  On  this  basis  without  regard  to  in- 
come return  the  holder  of  5000  francs  capi- 
tal would  receive  a  profit  of  $103.94  or  over 
13-75  P^r  cent  on  his  investment. 

Should  the  market  price  of  the  issue  ad- 
vance to  100  and  exchange  return  to  normal 
the  investor  would  get  $19.30  for  every  100 
francs  capital;  $193.00  for  every  1000 
francs  capital;  $965.00  for  every  5000 
francs  capital.  In  this  case  and  again  with- 
out regard  to  income  return,  the  holder  of 
5000  francs  capital  would  receive  a  net 
profit  of  $223.50  or  approximately  30  per 
cent. 

This  loan  is  issued  in  Rentes  and  in  de- 
nominations of  100  francs  and  multiples. 
Rentes  is  the  form  in  which  all  French 
Gk)vernment  issues  are  brought  out  at  home. 
The  word  means  interest  or  income.  The 
French  always  refer  to  their  Government 
Bonds  in  terms  of  interest  without  any  men- 


188         The  War  After  the  War 

tion  of  principal.  This  is  because  rentes 
are  supposed  to  be  perpetual.  The  new 
French  loan  just  explained  is  not  redeemable 
or  convertible  before  193 1. 

Usually  there  is  no  limit  to  these  Na- 
tional French  loans.  To  be  in  France  dur- 
ing the  war  and  see  the  popular  response  to 
the  appeal  for  funds  is  to  have  a  thrilling 
experience  in  the  practical  side  of  patriot- 
ism. 

I  chanced  to  be  in  Paris  when  one  of 
these  loans  was  launched.  Throughout  a 
day  of  driving  rain  thousands  of  people 
stood  in  line  at  the  post  offices  and  private 
institutions  waiting  for  a  chance  to  put  their 
money  out  to  work  for  their  country.  The 
French  wage  worker,  be  he  artisan  or  street 
cleaner,  needed  no  coaching  in  the  art  of 
employing  his  funds  safely  and  profitably. 
Just  as  saving  is  instinct  with  him,  so  is  the 
putting  of  these  savings  out  to  work  in  a 
Government  bond  second  nature.  He  is  the 
thriftiest  and  most  cautious  investor  in  the 
world.  He  has  established  a  close  and  con- 
fidential relation  with  his  banker  such  as 
exists  in  no  other  nation.  Therefore  when 
the  French  financier  offers  him  Government 


The  Price  of  Glory  189 

Bonds  or  "Loans  of  Victory"  as  the  war  is- 
sues are  emotionally  termed,  he  does  not 
hesitate.    He  knows  it  is  all  right. 

Alluring  as  is  the  possibility  of  profit  in 
the  new  French  Rente  at  the  present  ab- 
normal exchange  basis,  it  fades  before  the 
prospects  for  similar  profit  that  lie  in  some 
of  the  Russian  Government  Bonds  available 
in  the  United  States.  The  Imperial  Russian 
Internal  Five  and  a  Half  Per  Cent  Loan  of 
1916  amounting  to  2,000,000,000  roubles 
will  illustrate. 

Ordinarily  the  Russian  rouble  is  worth 
51.45  cents  in  American  money.  It  has 
gone  down  to  32  cents.  At  this  rate  of 
exchange  a  thousand  rouble  bond  bearing 
interest  at  sY^  per  cent  would  only  cost 
$320.00.  Based  on  the  normal  value  of  the 
rouble  this  bond  would  be  worth  $514.60  or 
$194.60  above  the  present  price  of  the  bond 
— an  increase  of  about  60.8  per  cent  on  the 
investment.  Figuring  roubles  at  the  normal 
rate  of  exchange  the  yearly  yield  would  be 
$28.28  or  8.8  per  cent  on  the  investment. 

The  fact  that  roubles  are  down  so  low  is 
evidence  that  Russian  credit  at  the  moment 
is  not  as  high  as  it  might  be.    The  principal 


190         The  War  After  the  War 

equity  behind  this  bond,  as  well  as  most 
other  Russian  securities  available  in  Amer- 
ica, is  the  fact  that  Russia  has  immense  post- 
war possibilities.  She  will  emerge  from  the 
conflict  like  a  giant  awakened  and  with  the 
first  realisation  of  her  enormous  undevel- 
oped resources.  To  offset  this,  however,  is 
the  lack  of  stability  of  Russian  Government 
as  compared  with  the  other  Allies  which 
makes  all  Russian  Bonds  speculative. 

On  account  of  the  difficulty  in  shipping 
bonds  and  the  preponderance  of  pro-Ally 
sentiment  here,  there  has  been  a  compara- 
tively small  market  for  German  and  Aus- 
trian war  issues  in  the  United  States.  Yet, 
in  the  face  of  these  handicaps,  a  consider- 
able market  has  developed.  It  is  due  to  two 
definite  reasons.  One  is  the  desire  of  the 
native  born  and  transplanted  Teuton  to  help 
his  country.  Many  of  them  appear  at  the 
German  banks  with  their  savings  books 
eager  and  ready  to  make  financial  sacrifice 
for  the  Fatherland.  The  other  reason  is 
that  the  German  mark  has  so  greatly  depre- 
ciated (it  has  gone  down  from  23.82  cents 
to  17.65  cents)  that  should  it  ever  come 
back  to  anything  like  normal  and  the  Gov- 


The  Price  of  Glory  191 

ernment  does  not  repudiate  its  issues  the 
investment  will  be  very  profitable. 

Here  is  the  way  it  works  out :  in  ordinary 
times  a  4000  mark  bond  which  would  be  the 
equivalent  of  a  $1000  American  piece,  costs 
about  $960.  At  the  present  low  rate  of  ex- 
change the  same  German  bond  costs  $690.00 
in  American  money  and  therefore  shows  a 
profit  on  the  exchange  basis  alone  of  $270.00 
or  over  28  per  cent.  Austrian  Bonds  show 
even  a  larger  profit. 

Summarise  our  war  lending  and  you  get  a 
total  of  all  loans  to  belligerent  Governments 
since  the  outbreak  of  the  war  that  aggregate 
$1,828,600,000,  which  is  nearly  one-third  of 
the  whole  cost  of  the  Civil  War.  Add  to 
this  our  loans  of  $185,000,000  to  Canadian 
Provinces  and  Cities  and  $8,200,000  to  the 
City  of  Dublin  and  to  the  City  of  London 
for  water  works  improvements,  a  grand  to- 
tal of  $2,075,800,000  is  rolled  up.  Of  this 
sum  $156,400,000  in  obligations  have  ma- 
tured and  been  paid  off,  which  leaves  a  net 
debt  to  us  of  $1,919,400,000.  It  divides  up 
as  follows: 

Great  Britain $858,400,000 

France 656,200,000 


192         The  War  After  the  War 

Russia $167,200,000 

Italy 25,000,000 

Dominion  of  Canada 120,000,000 

Canadian  Provinces  and  Mu- 
nicipalities     - 185,000,000 

Germany    20,000,000 

Having  taken  this  financial  plunge  into 
European  financial  waters,  Uncle  Sam  has 
got  the  foreign  lending  habit  and  has  loaned 
$ii7,cxx),ooo  to  Latin- America,  mainly  to 
Argentina  and  Chili :  $39,000,000  to  neutral 
European  nations,  including  Switzerland, 
Norway,  Greece  and  Sweden.  Not  desiring 
to  play  any  race  favourites,  he  has  speeded 
China  on  her  way  to  enlightenment  to  the 
extent  of  $4,000,000. 

In  buying  foreign  war  bonds — a  proce- 
dure which  in  war  time  naturally  involves 
sentiment — it  is  wise  for  the  investor  to 
watch  his  step.  Patriotism  is  all  right  in  its 
place  but  unless  you  can  afford  to  contribute 
money  for  purely  emotional  reasons,  a  cold 
business  estimate  of  the  situation  is  advis- 
able. This  applies  especially  to  the  man  or 
woman  with  savings  who  cannot  afford  to 
take  chances.    He  or  she  will  find  it  a  good 


The  Price  of  Glory  193 

rule  to  stick  to  external  bonds  except  under 
exceptional  conditions. 

One  objection  to  the  average  internal  bond 
is  that  with  the  exception  of  England  the 
native  money  has  greatly  depreciated  in  in- 
ternational value.  Of  course,  if  all  these 
countries  finally  get  back  to  their  old  stand- 
ards of  wealth,  these  investments  will  yield 
a  very  large  profit.  To  reap  this  benefit, 
however,  it  will  be  necessary  to  hold  the  se- 
curities for  a  considerable  period  because  it 
will  take  the  warring  countries  a  long  time 
to  "come  back."  Another  fact  in  connection 
with  internal  bonds  well  worth  remembering 
is  that  while  belligerent  countries  will  scru- 
pulously respect  their  obligations  held  by  a 
great  neutral  like  the  United  States  whose 
good  will  and  resources  will  be  very  neces- 
sary after  the  close  of  hostilities,  there  is  the 
possibility,  remote  though  it  may  be,  that 
repudiation  of  home  issues  may  come  in  the 
shock  of  readjustment. 

In  a  word,  in  purchasing  a  foreign  war 
bond  be  sure  to  get  a  stable  national  name, 
accumulated  wealth,  habits  of  thrift,  an  am- 
ple taxing  power,  and  a  good  conversion 
basis  behind  the  security. 


194.         The  War  After  the  War 

Amid  all  our  war  lending  lurks  a  menace 
to  future  and  necessary  American  financing. 
In  flush  times  like  these  it  is  comparatively 
easy  for  us  to  spare  large  sums  of  money, 
because  such  capital  is  available  and  not 
missed  at  home.  If  there  was  the  absolute 
certainty  that  all  the  foreign  short  term 
loans  would  be  paid  on  maturity  there  would 
be  no  reason  to  show  the  red  light. 

But  any  man  who  knows  anything  about 
the  European  financial  situation  also  knows 
that  it  will  be  extremely  difficult,  almost  im- 
possible, for  the  fighting  nations  to  meet 
their  obligations  within  the  time  specified. 
This  does  not  mean  that  they  will  be  unable 
to  pay.  It  does  mean,  however,  that  the  in- 
roads of  the  war  will  have  been  so  terrific 
that  pressing  needs  will  so  continue  to  pile 
up  that  renewals  must  be  sought.  Thus  our 
money  will  still  be  tied  up. 

What  will  happen  at  home?  Simply  this. 
American  enterprise  which  will  need  capital 
for  expansion  may  have  to  wait.  In  dis- 
cussing this  matter  one  of  the  best  known 
American  bankers  said  this  to  me  the  other 
day: 

"If  America  had  a  benevolent  despot  I 


The  Price  of  Glory  195 

believe  that  he  ought  to  set  aside  an  arbi- 
trary sum  which  would  represent  the  limit 
that  we  as  a  nation  could  lend  each  year  to 
foreign  countries." 

There  is  still  another  hardship  in  this  out- 
ward flow  of  our  capital.  It  lies  in  the  fact 
that  the  very  attractive  terms  of  the  war 
loans  have  made  it  very  difficult  for  Ameri- 
can railroads  and  corporations  to  finance 
their  needs.  They  must  pay  more  for  their 
requirements  than  ever  before. 

Yet  this  war  financing  has  done  more  for 
us  than  merely  provide  an  opportunity  for 
the  profitable  employment  of  hundreds  of 
millions  of  dollars.  It  has  brought  back 
home  about  $1,500,000,000  of  our  securities, 
mostly  in  railroad,  that  were  held  abroad. 
This  has  not  only  meant  a  considerable  cut- 
ting down  in  the  sum  that  we  formerly  had 
to  send  to  Europe  in  interest  and  dividends, 
but  it  has  helped  to  make  us  more  econom- 
ically independent.  There  is  still  $1,780,- 
000,000  of  our  securities  held  abroad,  and 
if  the  war  keeps  on  much  longer  a  great  por- 
tion of  it  is  likely  to  come  back. 

There  were  two  good  reasons  for  this 
lic^uidation.    One  was  that  the  holder  of  the 


196         The  War  After  the  War 

American  security  in  England  is  subject  to 
a  very  high  tax  in  addition  to  the  normal 
income  tax  on  large  fortunes.  Another  was 
the  necessity  for  the  mobilisation  of  Amer- 
ican securities  to  become  part  of  the  collat- 
eral offered  by  the  British  Government  for 
the  loans  made  in  this  country.  In  many 
instances  the  English  owner  of  American 
securities  has  simply  loaned  them  to  his 
country  as  a  patriotic  act.  In  numerous 
other  cases,  however,  he  has  sold  them  out- 
right and  put  the  proceeds  into  home  war 
issues. 

You  have  seen  how  our  millions  have 
joined  that  greater  stream  of  European  bil- 
lions to  meet  the  rising  tide  of  war  cost. 
How  is  this  vast  debt  to  be  paid  and  what 
is  the  paying  capacity  of  the  nations  in- 
volved ? 

In  analysing  the  war  debt  and  its  costly 
hangover  for  posterity,  you  must  remember 
that  not  all  of  it  is  in  actual  money.  The 
nations  at  war  have  not  only  taxed  their 
economic  reserve  through  the  destruction 
of  productive  capacity  in  the  loss  of  men 
and  material — as  I  have  already  pointed  out 
— but  have  made  a  costly  and  well-nigh  per- 


The  Price  of  Glorij  197 

manent  drain  upon  what  might  be  called 
their  nervous  systems. 

Look  for  a  moment  at  the  American  Civil 
War  whose  cost  was  a  mere  flea  bite  as  com- 
pared with  the  stupendous  price  of  the  Eu- 
ropean Conflagration.  At  the  end  of  that 
war  only  half  of  its  reckoning  was  repre- 
sented in  the  country's  bonded  debt.  After 
fifty  years  we  are  still  paying  in  some  way 
for  the  other  and  larger  outlay,  the  invisible 
strain  on  the  country. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem  in  the  light  of  the 
present  frightful  ravage  in  Europe,  no  coun- 
try has  ever  been  completely  ravaged  by 
war.  When  I  returned  from  Europe  more 
than  a  year  ago,  I  was  convinced  that  eco- 
nomic exhaustion  would  be  the  determining 
factor :  that  victory  would  perch  on  the  side 
of  the  biggest  bank  roll.  After  a  second 
trip  to  the  warring  lands  I  am  convinced 
that  I  was  wrong  in  my  first  impression. 
Observation  again  in  England  and  France 
leads  me  to  believe  that  man  power — beef, 
not  gold — will  win.  The  extents  to  which 
financial  credit  can  be  extended  in  the  coun- 
tries at  war  seem  to  be  almost  without  limit. 

This  leads  to  the  final  but  all  essential 


198         Tlie  War  After  the  War 

detail:  How  will  the  European  nations 
pay? 

Since  the  Allies  practically  have  a  mo- 
nopoly on  the  American  money  sent  abroad 
for  war  purposes,  let  us  briefly  look  at  the 
equity  behind  the  Thing  known  as  National 
Honour.  Its  first  and  foremost  bulwark  is 
Wealth.  Take  England  first.  The  wealth 
of  the  United  Kingdom  is  $90,000,000,000: 
the  annual  income  of  the  people  $12,000,- 
000,000.  To  this  you  can  add  the  wealth, 
resource  and  income  of  all  her  far-flung 
colonies  and  the  immense  amount  of  money 
due  to  her  from  foreign  countries.  Unlike 
France  and  save  for  a  few  Zeppelin  raids, 
the  Empire  is  absolutely  free  from  the  rav- 
age of  war.  The  principal  assault  has  been 
upon  her  income,  for  her  great  Principal  is 
still  intact. 

In  examining  the  methods  adopted  by 
England  and  France  to  meet  the  cost  of  the 
war,  you  find  a  sharp  difference  of  proced- 
ure which  is  characteristic  of  the  countries. 
Following  the  British  tradition,  England  is 
trying  to  make  the  war  "pay  its  way"  with 
taxation.  Out  of  a  total  expenditure  of  $9,- 
500,000,000  for  the  current  year,  no  less 


The  Price  of  Glory  199 

than  $2,500,000,000  was  raised  by  taxation. 
The  rest  was  obtained  by  loans  at  home 
and  abroad. 

The  income  tax  alone  will  serve  to  show 
the  enormous  increase  in  tribute.  From  .04 
per  cent  on  small  incomes  to  13  per  cent  on 
large  ones  before  the  war  it  has  risen  to  i 
per  cent  on  small  incomes  to  over  41^  per 
cent  on  big  ones.  Again,  60  per  cent  of  all 
excess  profits  earned  since  the  war  are  sur- 
rendered to  the  State. 

I  can  give  no  better  evidence  of  the  re- 
sult of  this  taxation  than  to  repeat  what 
Reginald  McKenna,  Chancellor  of  the  Brit- 
ish Exchequer,  said  to  me  in  London  last 
August : 

"The  English  position  is  so  sound,"  he 
declared,  ''that  if  the  war  ended  at  the  end 
of  the  current  financial  year,  that  is,  on 
March  the  31st,  19 17,  our  present  scale  of 
taxation  would  provide  not  only  for  the 
whole  of  our  peace  expenditures  and  the  in- 
terest on  the  entire  National  Debt  but  also 
for  a  sinking  fund  calculated  to  redeem  that 
debt  in  less  than  forty  years.  There  would 
still  remain  a  surplus  sufficient  to  allow  me 


200         The  War  After  the  War 

to  wipe  out  the  excess  profit  tax  and  to  re- 
duce other  taxes  considerably." 

When  I  asked  him  to  make  this  more  spe- 
cific, he  continued: 

''The  total  revenue  for  the  current  year 
is  $2,545,000,000.  Our  last  Peace  Budget 
was  $1,000,000,000.  Assuming  that  the  war 
would  end  by  next  March  ist,  you  must  add 
another  $590,000,000  for  interest  and  sink- 
ing fund  on  the  war  debt  together  with  a 
further  $100,000,000  for  pensions  which 
would  make  the  total  yearly  expenditure  for 
the  first  year  of  peace  $1,690,000,000.  De- 
ducting this  from  the  existing  taxation  you 
get  a  surplus  of  $855,000,000.  Thus  after 
withdrawing  the  $430,000,000  received  from 
the  excess  profits  tax  there  still  remains  a 
margin  of  $425,000,000." 

Indeed,  to  analyze  British  war  finance  to- 
day is  to  find  something  besides  debits  and 
credits  and  balances.  It  is  a  great  moral 
force  that  does  not  reckon  in  terms  of 
pounds  or  pence.  There  is  no  thought  of 
indemnity  to  soothe  the  scars  of  waste:  no 
dream  of  conquest  to  atone  for  friendly  land 
despoiled. 

Money  grubbing  has  gone,  if  only  for  the 


The  Price  of  Glory  201 

moment,  along  with  the  other  baser  things 
that  have  evaporated  in  the  giant  melting 
pot  of  the  war.  In  England  to-day  there 
are  only  two  things,  Work  and  Fight.  They 
are  giving  the  nation  an  economic  rebirth: 
a  new  idea  of  the  dignity  of  toil :  they  have 
begot  a  spirit  of  denial  that  is  rearing  an 
impregnable  rampart  of  resource. 

Even  more  marvellous'  is  the  financial  de- 
votion of  the  French  who  present  a  spectacle 
of  unselfish  sacrifice  that  merely  to  touch, 
as  alien,  is  to  have  a  thrilling  and  unfor- 
gettable experience. 

When  you  look  into  the  French  method  of 
paying  for  the  war  you  get  the  really  pic- 
turesque and  human  interest  details.  In 
place  of  taxation  you  find  that  the  war  is 
being  paid,  in  the  main,  out  of  the  savings  of 
the  people.  Instead  of  mortgaging  the  fu- 
ture, the  Gaul  is  utilising  his  thrifty  past. 

Never  in  all  history  is  there  a  more  im- 
pressive or  inspiring  demonstration  of  the 
value  of  thrift  as  a  national  asset.  It  has 
reared  the  bulwark  that  will  enable  France 
to  withstand  whatever  economic  attack  the 
war  will  make. 

The  difference  between  the  English  and 


202         The  War  After  the  War 

French  system  of  war  financing  is  psycho- 
logical as  well  as  material.  The  average 
Frenchman  has  a  great  deal  of  the  peasant 
in  him.  He  is  willing  to  give  his  life  and 
his  honour  to  the  nation  but  he  absolutely 
draws  the  line  at  paying  taxes.  This  is  why 
the  French  have  made  it  a  war  of  loans. 

Go  up  and  down  the  battle  line  in  France 
and  you  get  startling  evidence  of  the  French 
devotion  to  savings.  More  than  one  English 
officer  has  told  me  of  tearful  requests  from 
French  peasants  for  permission  to  go  back 
to  their  steel-swept  and  war-torn  little  farms 
to  dig  up  the  few  hundreds  of  francs  buried 
in  some  corner  of  field  or  garden.  Equally 
impressive  is  the  sight  of  farmers — usually 
old  men  and  women — working  in  the  fields 
while  shells  shriek  overhead  and  the  artillery 
rumbles  along  dusty  highways. 

Thus  the  French  war  debt  will  be  met  be- 
cause of  the  almost  incredible  saving  power 
of  the  French  people.  It  is  at  once  their 
pride  and  their  prosperity.  When  all  is 
said  and  done,  you  discover  that  with  na- 
tions as  with  individuals  it  is  not  what  they 
make  but  what  they  save  that  makes  them 
strong  and  enduring. 


The  Price  of  Glory  203 

One  afternoon  last  summer  I  talked  in 
Paris  with  M.  Alexandre  Ribot,  the  French 
Minister  of  Finance:  a  stately  white-bearded 
figure  of  a  man  who  looked  as  if  he  had 
just  stepped  out  of  a  Rembrandt  etching. 
He  sat  in  a  richly  tapestried  room  in  the  old 
Louvre  Palace  where  more  than  one  King 
had  danced  to  merry  tune.  Now  this  stately 
apartment  was  the  nerve  centre  of  a  mar- 
vellous and  close-knit  structure  that  repre- 
sented a  real  financial  democracy. 

"How  long  can  France  stand  the  financial 
strain  of  war?"  I  asked  the  Minister. 

Light  flashed  in  his  eyes  as  he  replied : 

"So  long  as  the  French  people  know  how 
to  save,  and  this  meai^s  indefinitely." 

Although  the  invader  has  crossed  her 
threshold,  France  continues  to  save.  Every 
wife  in  the  Republic  who  is  earning  her  live- 
lihood while  her  husband  is  at  the  front 
(and  nearly  every  man  who  can  carry  a  gun 
is  fighting  or  in  training),  is  putting  some- 
thing by.  It  means  the  building  up  of  a 
future  financial  reserve  against  which  the 
nation  can  draw  for  war  or  peace. 

One  rock  of  French  economic  solidity  lies 
in  her  immense  gold  supply.    The  per  capita 


204         The  War  After  the  War 

amount  of  gold  is  $30.02  and  is  larger  than 
any  other  country  in  the  world.  The  United 
States  is  next  with  $19.39,  after  which 
come  the  United  Kingdom  with  $18.28,  and 
Germany  $14.08.  Let  me  add,  in  this  con- 
nection, that  a  good  deal  of  the  French  gold 
is  still  in  stocking  and  cupboard. 

By  the  end  of  191 6  the  war  had  cost 
France  $11,000,000,000,  which  means  an 
annual  fixed  charge  of  $600,000,000,  to 
which  must  be  added  $200,000,000  for  pen- 
sions, making  the  total  fixed  burden  of 
$800,000,000. 

All  this  cannot  be  paid  out  of  savings, 
although  in  normal  times  France  saves  ex- 
actly $1,000,000,000  a  year.  But  the  Gov- 
ernment has  one  big  trump  card  up  its 
sleeve.  It  is  the  large  fortunes  of  her  citi- 
zens. They  have  been  untouched  by  the 
war  because  practically  no  income  tax  has 
been  levied. 

While  the  average  Frenchman  will  sac- 
rifice his  life  rather  than  submit  to  taxation, 
the  upper  and  wealthy  class  will  do  both. 
The  annual  income  of  the  people  of  France 
is  $6,000,000,000.  Therefore  a  12  per  cent 
tax  on  this  income  would  very  nearly  pro- 


The  Price  of  Glory  205 

duce  the  entire  fixed  charge  on  the  war  debt. 
France  looks  into  the  financial  future  un- 
afraid. 

Financially,  Russia  ambles  along  like  the 
Big  Bear  she  typifies.  In  one  respect  her 
method  of  financing  the  war  cost  differs  dis- 
tinctly from  her  Allies  in  the  fact  that  she 
has  received  heavy  advances  from  England 
and  France.  From  England  alone  she  bor- 
rowed $1,250,000,000  which  was  expended 
for  arms  and  ammunition  and  field  equip- 
ment. The  Czar's  Empire  has  put  out  five 
internal  loans  while  the  rest  of  the  money 
needed  has  been  raised  out  of  the  sale  of 
short  term  Treasury  Bills,  paper  money  is- 
sues and  tax  levies. 

Except  for  the  few  millions  of  dollars 
obtained  in  the  United  States,  Germany's 
financing — like  her  whole  conduct  of  the 
war — is  self-contained.  Through  five  Im- 
perial 5  per  cent  loans  ranging  from  one  to 
three  billion  dollars  each,  she  has  established 
a  war  credit  of  $12,500,000,000.  This  money 
— to  a  smaller  degree  than  in  France — ^has 
come  from  the  great  mass  of  the  German 
people. 

Other  sources  of  revenue  that  are  en- 


206         TJie  War  After  the  War 

abling  the  Kaiser  to  pay  for  the  war  are 
Treasury  Bills  sold  at  home  and  a  taxation 
that  is  moderate  compared  with  the  colossal 
pre-war  taxation  which  spelled  Germany's 
Preparedness.  At  the  time  I  write  this 
chapter  her  war  expenditure  had  passed  the 
$14,000,000,000  mark.  Tack  on  to  this  Ger- 
many's peace  debt  of  $5,000,000,000  more 
and  you  begin  to  see — with  all  the  uncer- 
tainty of  the  war's  duration — the  immense 
burden  that  the  Fatherland  will  have  to 
carry.  The  war's  drain  on  the  German  fu- 
ture is  perhaps  greater  than  that  of  any 
other  country  because  all  her  war  loans  are 
long  term.  She  has  also  loaned  nearly  $1,- 
000,000,000  to  Austria,  Turkey  and  Bul- 
garia. 

The  Teutonic  war  cost  has  one  distinct 
advantage  over  all  others  in  that  it  is  con- 
fined within  the  German  borders.  Hence 
Germany  can  do  as  she  pleases  with  regard 
to  its  settlement.  If  the  Mailed  Fist  obtains 
after  the  war  she  can  clamp  it  down  on  her 
loans,  wipe  them  out  as  she  chooses  and  no 
one  can  offer  a  protest. 

Now  let  us  dump  all  these  statistics  that 
represent  so  much  blood,  agony  and  sacrifice 


The  Price  of  Glory  207 

into  the  middle  of  the  table  and  strike  a  final 
balance  sheet. 

On  one  hand  you  have  the  assets  of 
the  warring  countries  as  represented  by 
their  national  wealth.  For  the  Allies,  in- 
cluding Roumania,  they  show  a  total  of 
$273,000,000,000:  for  the  Central  Powers 
they  register  $134,000,000,000.  If  wealth 
is  the  winning  factor  then  the  Allies  have 
the  advantage  in  weight  of  buying  metal. 

Take  the  other  side  of  the  ledger  and  you 
see  that  up  to  November  i,  1916,  the  four 
principal  allied  countries,  England,  France, 
Russia  and  Italy,  had  spent  on  direct  war 
cost  approximately  $34,000,000,000,  while 
the  total  Teutonic  war  expenditures  have 
been  $21,000,000,000.  To  this  actual  war 
cost  must  be  added  the  peace  debts  of  the 
belligerent  nations  which  would  supplement 
the  allied  expense  account  by  $17,465,000,- 
000  and  that  of  the  enemy  nations  by  $9,- 
808,000,000. 

Striking  a  grand  total  of  liabilities,  you 
find  that  if  the  war  mercifully  ends  by  Au- 
gust I,  1917  (as  Kitchener  predicted  it 
might),  the  fighting  peoples  would  face  a 


208         The  War  After  the  War 

debt  burden  of  all  kinds  that  had  reached 
$105773.000,000. 

After  this  colossal  scale  of  expenditures 
you  may  well  ask:  Will  it  ever  be  possible 
for  European  finance  to  see  straight  or 
count  normally  again? 

Be  that  as  it  may,  no  one  can  doubt  that 
the  battling  nations,  individually  or  with  the 
marvellous  team-work  that  kinship  in  their 
respective  causes  has  begot,  are  able  to  pay 
their  way  while  the  struggle  lasts.  Grim 
To-day  will  take  care  of  itself  under  the 
stress  of  passion  born  of  desire  to  win.  It 
is  the  Reckoning  of  that  Uncertain  To-mor- 
row that  will  prove  to  be  the  problem. 

You  cannot  bankrupt  a  nation  any  more 
than  you  can  ruin  an  individual  so  long  as 
brains  and  energy  are  available.  Peace 
therefore  will  not  find  a  ruined  Europe  but 
it  will  dawn  on  a  group  of  depleted  coun- 
tries facing  enormous  responsibilities.  War 
ends  but  the  cost  of  it  endures.  Just  as 
present  millions  are  paying  with  their  lives 
so  will  unborn  hosts  pay  with  the  sweat  of 
their  brows. 

Meanwhile   our   Financial   Stake   in   the 


The  Price  of  Glory  209 

Great  Struggle  is  secure.  How  much  more 
we  will  have  to  put  into  Europe's  Red  Pay 
Envelope  remains  to  be  seen.  In  any  event, 
we  have  learned  how  to  do  it. 


VII — The  Man  Lloyd  George 

THE  door  opened  and  almost  before 
I   had  crossed  the  threshold  the 
little  grey-haired  man  down  at  the 
end  of  the  long  stately  room  began 
to  speak.    Lloyd  George  was  in  action. 

I  had  last  seen  him  a  year  ago  in  the 
murk  of  a  London  railway  station  when  I 
bade  him  farewell  after  a  memorable  day. 
With  him  I  had  gone  to  Bristol  where  he 
had  made  an  impassioned  plea  for  harmony 
to  the  Trade  Union  Congress.  Then  he  was 
Minister  of  Munitions,  Shell-Master  of  the 
Nation  in  its  critical  hour  of  Ammunition 
Need. 

Now  he  had  succeeded  the  lamented 
Kitchener  as  Minister  of  War;  sat  in  the 
Seat  of  Strategy,  head  of  the  far-flung  kha- 
kied  hosts  that  even  at  this  moment  were 
breasting  death  on  half  a  dozen  fronts. 
Just  as  twelve  months  before  he  had  un- 
flinchingly met  the  Great  Emergency  that 
threatened  his  country's  existence,  so  did 
he  again  fill  the  National  Breach. 

2IO 


The  Man  Lloyd  George  211 

England's  Man  of  Destiny  whose  long 
career  is  one  continuous  and  spectacular 
public  performance  was  on  the  job. 

But  it  was  not  the  same  Lloyd  George 
who  had  sounded  the  call  for  Military  and 
Industrial  Conscription  from  the  Peaks  of 
Empire.  Another  year  of  war  had  etched 
the  travail  of  its  long  agony  upon  his  fea- 
tures, saddened  the  eyes  that  had  always 
beheld  the  Vision  of  the  Greater  Things. 
The  little  man  was  fresh  from  the  front  and 
full  of  all  that  its  mighty  sacrifice  betok- 
ened not  only  to  the  embattled  nations  but 
to  the  world  as  well. 

Though  we  spoke  of  Politics,  Presidents 
and  the  Great  Social  Forces  that  so  far  as 
England  was  concerned  acknowledged  him 
as  leader,  the  current  of  speech  always 
swept  back  to  war  and  its  significance  for  us. 

"Since  the  war  means  so  much  to  us,"  I 
said,  ''have  you  no  message  for  America?" 

Throughout  our  talk  he  had  sat  in  a  low 
chair  sometimes  tilting  it  backward  as  he 
swayed  with  the  vehemency  of  his  words. 
Suddenly  he  became  still.  He  turned  his 
head  and  looked  dreamily  out  the  window  at 
his  left  where  he  could  see  the  throng  of 


212         The  War  After  the  War 

Whitehall  as  it  swept  back  and  forth  along 
London's  Great  Military  Way. 

Then  rising  slowly  and  with  eloquent  ges- 
ture and  trembling  voice  (he  might  have 
been  speaking  to  thousands  instead  of  one 
person),  he  said: 

"The  hope  of  the  world  is  that  America 
will  realise  the  call  that  Destiny  is  making 
to  her  in  tones  that  are  getting  louder  and 
more  insistent  as  the  terrible  months  go  by. 
That  Destiny  lies  in  the  enforcement  of 
respect  for  International  Law  and  Interna- 
tional Rights." 

It  was  a  pregnant  and  unforgettable  mo- 
ment. From  the  Throne  Room  of  a  Mighty 
Conflict  England's  War  Lord  was  sounding 
the  note  of  a  distant  process  of  peace. 

If  you  had  probed  behind  this  kindling 
utterance  you  would  have  seen  with  Lloyd 
George  himself  that  beyond  the  flaming 
battle-lines  and  past  the  tumult  of  a  World 
at  War  was  the  hope  of  some  far-away  Tri- 
bunal that  would  judge  nations  and  keep 
them,  just  as  individuals  are  kept,  in  the 
path  of  Right  and  Humanity, 

But  before  any  such  bloodless  antidote 
can  be  applied  to  International  Dispute,  to 


The  Man  Lloyd  George  213 

quote  Lloyd  George  again :  "This  war  must 
be  fought  to  a  finish." 

These  final  words,  snapped  like  a  whip- 
lash and  emphasised  with  a  fist-beat  on  the 
table,  meant  that  England  would  see  her 
Titan  Task  through  and  if  for  no  other  rea- 
son because  the  man  who  drives  the  war 
gods  wills  it  so.  What  sort  of  man  is  this 
who  goes  from  post  to  post  with  inspired 
faith  and  unfailing  execution?  What  are 
the  qualities  that  have  lifted  him  from  ob- 
scure provincial  solicitor  to  be  the  Prop  of 
a  People? 

"Let  George  do  it,"  has  become  the 
chronic  plea  of  all  Britain  in  her  time  of 
trial.    How  does  he  do  it? 

To  understand  any  man  you  must  get  at 
his  beginnings.  Thus  to  appreciate  Lloyd 
George  you  must  first  know  that  he  is 
Welsh  and  this  means  that  he  was  cradled 
in  revolt.  He  must  have  come  into  the 
world  crying  protest.  He  was  reared  in  a 
land  of  frowning  crags  and  lovely  dales,  of 
mingled  snow  and  sunshine,  of  poetry  and 
passion.  About  him  love  of  liberty  clashed 
with  vested  tyranny.  These  conflicting 
things   shaped  his  character,   entered   into 


214         The  War  After  the  War 

his  very  being  and  made  him  temperamen- 
tally a  creature  of  magnificent  ironies. 

But  this  conflict  did  not  end  with  emo- 
tion. All  his  life  Contrast,  sometimes  gro- 
tesque but  always  dramatic,  has  marked 
him  for  its  own.  You  behold  the  Apostle 
of  Peace  who  once  espoused  the  Boer,  trans- 
lated into  the  flaming  Disciple  and  Maker 
of  War  through  the  Rape  of  Belgium.  You 
see  the  fiery  Radical,  jeered  and  despised  by 
the  Aristocracy,  become  the  Protector  of 
Peers.  No  wonder  he  stands  to-day  as  the 
most  picturesque,  compelling  and  challeng- 
ing figure  of  the  English  speaking  race. 
Only  one  other  man — Theodore  Roosevelt 
— vies  with  him  for  this  many-sided  dis- 
tinction. 

The  son  of  a  village  schoolmaster  who 
died  when  he  was  scarcely  three:  the  ward 
of  a  shoe-maker  who  was  also  inspired  lay- 
preacher:  the  political  protege  of  a  Militant 
Nationalist  whose  heart  bled  at  the  oppres- 
sion of  the  Welsh,  Lloyd  George  early 
looked  out  upon  a  life  smarting  with  griev- 
ance and  clamouring  to  be  free.  Knowing 
this,  you  can  understand  that  the  dominant 
characteristic  of  this  man  is  to  rebel  against 


The  Man  Lloyd  George  215 

established  order.  Swaddled  in  Democracy, 
he  became  its  Embodiment  and  its  Voice. 

The  world  knows  about  the  Lloyd  George 
childhood  spent  amidst  poverty  in  a  Welsh 
village.  The  big-eyed  boy  ate,  thought  and 
dreamed  in  Welsh,  ''the  language  that 
meant  a  daily  fare  of  barley  bread."  When 
he  learned  English  it  was  like  acquiring  a 
foreign  tongue.  He  grew  up  amid  a  great 
revival  of  Welsh  art,  letters  and  religion 
that  stirred  his  soul.  He  missed  the  pulpit 
by  a  narrow  margin,  yet  he  has  never  lost 
the  evangelistic  fervour  which  is  one  of  the 
secrets  of  his  control  and  command  of  peo- 
ple. 

With  the  alphabet  Lloyd  George  absorbed 
the  wrongs  of  his  people  and  they  were 
many.  The  Welsh  had  a  double  bondage: 
the  grasp  of  the  Landlord  and  the  Thrall  of 
the  Church.  All  about  him  quivered  the 
aspiration  for  a  free  land,  a  free  people 
and  a  free  religion.  In  those  days  Wales 
was  like  another  Ireland  with  all  the  hard- 
ship that  Eviction  imposes. 

The  call  to  leadership  came  early.  As  a 
boy  in  school  he  led  his  mates  in  rebellion 
against   the   drastic   dictates   of   a   Church 


216         The  War  After  the  War 

which  prescribed  liberty  of  religious 
thoughts  and  speech.  He  became  the 
Apostle  of  Nonconformity  and  for  it  waged 
some  of  his  fiercest  battles. 

Always  the  gift  of  oratory  was  his.  He 
preached  temperance  almost  with  his  advent 
into  his  teens :  he  was  a  convincing  speaker 
before  most  boys  talked  straight. 

In  due  time  Lloyd  George  became  a  solici- 
tor but  it  was  merely  the  step  into  public 
life.  To  plead  is  instinct  with  him  and 
with  advocacy  of  a  case  in  court  he  was 
always  urging  some  reform  for  his  little 
country.  Politics  was  meat  and  drink  to 
him  and  he  stood  for  Parliament.  An 
ardent  Home  Ruler,  he  swayed  his  follow- 
ers with  such  intensity  that  what  came  to 
be  known  as  Lloyd  George's  Battle  Song 
sprang  into  being.  Sung  to  the  American 
tune  of  "Marching  Through  Georgia"  it 
was  hailed  as  the  fighting  hymn  of  Welsh 
Nationalism.  Two  lines  show  where  the 
young  Welsh  lawyer  stood  in  his  early 
twenties:  they  also  point  his  whole  future: 

"The  Grand  Young  Man  will  triumph, 
Lloyd  George  will  win  the  day " 


The  Man  Lloyd  George         217 

There  is  something  Lincoln-Hke  in  the 
spectacle  of  his  first  struggle.  This  lowly- 
lad  fought  the  forces  of  "Squirearchy  and 
Hierarchy."  The  Tories  hurled  at  him  the 
anathema  that  he  ''had  been  born  in  a  cot- 
tage." 

"Ah,"  replied  Lloyd  George,  when  he 
heard  of  it:  "the  Tories  have  not  realised 
that  the  day  of  the  cottage-bred  man  has 
dawned." 

Before  he  got  through  he  was  destined  to 
show,  that  so  far  as  opportunity  was  con- 
cerned, the  Cottage  in  Great  Britain  was  to 
be  on  a  par  with  a  Palace. 

As  you  analyse  Lloyd  George's  life  you 
find  that  he  has  always  been  a  sort  of  Hu- 
man Lightning  Rod  that  attracted  the  bolts 
of  abuse.  A  campaign  meant  violent  con- 
troversy, frequently  physical  conflict.  The 
reason  was  that  he  always  stated  his  cause 
so  violently  as  to  arouse  bitter  resentment. 

Into  his  first  election  he  flung  himself 
with  the  fury  of  youth  and  the  eager  pas- 
sion of  a  zealot.  He  threw  conventional 
Liberalism  to  the  wind  and  made  a  fight  for 
a  Free  and  United  Wales.  He  frankly  be- 
lieved himself  to  be  the  inspired  leader  of 


218         The  War  After  the  War 

his  people:  often  his  meetings  became  riots. 
More  than  once  he  was  warned  that  the 
Tories  would  kill  him  and  on  several  occa- 
sions he  narrowly  escaped  death.  Once 
while  riding  with  his  wife  in  an  open  car- 
riage through  the  streets  of  Bangor  he  was 
assailed  by  a  hooting,  jeering  mob.  Some 
one  threw  a  blazing  fire  ball,  dipped  in  par- 
affine,  into  the  vehicle.  It  knocked  off  the 
candidate's  hat  and  fell  into  Mrs.  Lloyd 
George's  lap  setting  her  afire.  Lloyd  George 
threw  off  his  coat,  smothered  the  flames 
and  after  finding  that  the  innocent  victim 
of  the  assault  was  uninjured,  calmly  pro- 
ceeded to  the  Town  Hall  where  he  spoke, 
accompanied  by  a  fusillade  of  stones  which 
smashed  every  window  in  the  structure. 

In  this  campaign,  as  in  all  succeeding 
ones,  Lloyd  George  used  the  full  powers  of 
press  publicity.  He  made  reporters  his  con- 
fidants. Often  he  rehearsed  his  speeches 
before  them,  striding  up  and  down  and  de- 
claiming as  passionately  as  if  he  were  facing 
huge  audiences.  In  fact  he  acquired  an  in- 
terest in  a  group  of  Welsh  papers. 

Already  Welsh  chieftainship  was  being 
crystallised  in  the  aggressive  little  fire-eater. 


The  Man  Lloyd  George  219 

Anticipating  the  coming  call  of  the  Mother 
Country  she  was  laying  her  burdens  on  his 
stalwart  shoulders.  And  what  George  was 
now  doing  for  Wales  he  was  soon  to  do  in 
the  larger  arena  of  the  Empire. 

Once  in  Parliament  Lloyd  George  was  no 
man's  man.  He  became  a  free  lance  and 
while  sometimes  he  ran  amuck  his  cause  was 
always  the  cause  of  his  people. 

In  those  earlier  Parliamentary  days  you 
find  some  of  the  traits  that  distinguished  him 
later  on.  For  one  thing  he  disdained  the 
drudgery  of  committee  work:  he  chafed  at 
the  confinement  of  the  conference  room; 
eagle-like  he  yearned  to  spread  his  wings. 
His  forte  was  talking.  He  loathed  to  mull 
over  dull  and  unresponsive  reports.  He 
frankly  admitted  a  disinclination  to  work, 
and  it  makes  him  one  of  the  most  superficial 
of  men  in  what  the  world  calls  culture.  His 
intelligence  has  more  than  once  been  char- 
acterised as  ''brilliant  but  hasty." 

But  ofifsetting  all  this  is  the  man's  persua- 
sive and  pleading  personality  which  always 
gets  him  over  the  shallow  ground  of  igno- 
rance. This  is  one  reason  why  Lloyd  George 
has  always  been  stronger  in  attack  than  in 


220         The  War  After  the  War 

defence.  His  tactic  has  always  been  either 
to  assault  first  or  make  a  swift  counterdrive. 
He  is  a  sort  of  Stonewall  Jackson  of  Debate. 

Then,  as  throughout  his  whole  career,  he 
showed  an  extraordinary  aversion  to  letter- 
writing.  He  became  known  in  Parliament 
as  the  "Great  Unanswered."  He  used  to 
say,  and  still  does,  that  an  unanswered  let- 
ter answers  itself  in  time.  This  led  to  the 
tradition  that  the  only  way  to  get  a  written 
reply  out  of  Lloyd  George  was  to  enclose 
two  addressed  and  stamped  cards,  one  bear- 
ing the  word  "Yes"  and  the  other  "No." 
More  than  once,  however,  when  friends  and 
constituents  tried  this  ruse  they  got  both 
cards  back  in  the  same  envelope ! 

Not  long  ago  a  well  known  Englishman 
wanted  to  make  a  written  request  of  Lloyd 
George  and  on  consulting  one  of  his  asso- 
ciates was  given  this  instruction :  "Make  it 
brief.  Lloyd  George  never  reads  a  letter 
that  fills  more  than  half  a  page." 

There  is  no  need  of  rehearsing  here  the 
long-drawn  struggle  through  which  he  made 
his  way  to  party  leadership.  In  Parliament 
and  out,  he  was  a  hornet — a  good  thing  to 
let  alone,  and  an  ugly  customer  to  stir  up. 


The  Man  Lloyd  George  221 

Whether  he  lined  up  with  the  Government  or 
Opposition  it  mattered  little.  Lloyd  George 
has  always  been  an  insurgent  at  heart. 

The  crowded  Nineties  were  now  nearing 
their  end,  carrying  England  and  Lloyd 
George  on  to  fateful  hour.  Ministries  rose 
and  fell :  Roseberry  and  Harcourt  had  their 
day :  Chamberlain  climbed  to  power :  Asquith 
rose  over  the  horizon.  The  long  smouldering 
South  African  volcano  burst  into  eruption. 
It  meant  a  great  deal  to  many  people  in  Eng- 
land but  to  no  man  quite  so  much  as  to 
Lloyd  George. 

Now  comes  the  first  of  the  many  amazing 
freaks  that  Fate  played  with  him.  The  In- 
stitution of  War  which  in  later  years  was  to 
make  him  the  very  Rock  of  Empire  was  now, 
for  a  time  at  least,  to  be  his  undoing. 

Before  the  conflict  with  the  Boers  Lloyd 
George  was  a  militant  pacifist — a  sort  of 
peacemaker  with  a  punch.  When  England 
invaded  the  Transvaal  Lloyd  George  began 
a  battle  for  peace  that  made  him  for  the  first 
time  a  force  in  Imperial  aflfairs.  He  believed 
himself  to  be  the  Anointed  Eoe  of  the  War 
and  he  dedicated  himself  and  all  his  powers 
to  stem  what  seemed  to  be  a  hopeless  tide. 


222         TJie  War  After  the  War 

It  was  a  courageous  thing  to  do  for  he  not 
only  risked  his  reputation  but  his  career. 
Up  and  down  the  Empire  he  pleaded.  He 
was  in'  some  respects  the  brilliant  Bryan  of 
the  period  but  with  the  difference  that  he 
was  crucifying  himself  and  not  his  cause 
upon  the  Cross  of  Peace.  He  became  the 
target  of  bitter  attack:  no  epithet  was  too 
vile  to  hurl  upon  him.  Often  he  carried  his 
life  in  his  hands  as  the  episode  of  the  Bir- 
mingham riot  shows.  In  all  his  storm  tossed 
life  nothing  approached  this  in  daring  or 
danger. 

Lloyd  George  was  invited  to  speak  in  the 
Citadel  of  Imperialism  which  was  likewise 
the  home  of  Joseph  Chamberlain,  Arch- 
Apostle  of  the  Boer  War.  Save  for  the 
staunchest  Liberals  the  whole  town  rose  in 
protest.  For  weeks  the  local  press  seethed 
and  raged  denouncing  Lloyd  George  as 
"arch-traitor"  and  ''self-confessed  enemy." 
He  was  warned  that  he  would  imperil  his  life 
if  he  even  showed  himself.  He  sent  back 
this  word:  "I  am  announced  to  speak  and 
speak  I  will." 

He  reached  Birmingham  ahead  of  sched- 
ule time  and  got  to  the  home  of  his  host  in 


The  Man  Lloyd  George  223 

safety.  All  day  long  sandwich  men  paraded 
the  highways  bearing  placards  calling  upon 
the  citizenry  to  assemble  at  the  Town  Hall 
where  Lloyd  George  was  to  speak  "To  de- 
fend the  King,  the  Government  and  Mr. 
Chamberlain." 

Night  came,  the  streets  were  howling 
mobs,  every  constable  was  on  duty.  The  hall 
was  stormed  and  when  Lloyd  George  ap- 
peared on  the  platform  he  faced  turmoil. 
Hundreds  of  men  carried  sticks,  clubs  and 
bricks  covered  with  rags  and  fastened  to 
barbed  wire.  When  he  rose  to  speak  Bed- 
lam let  loose.  Jeers,  catcalls  and  frightful 
epithets  rained  on  him  and  with  them  rocks 
and  vegetables.  He  removed  his  overcoat 
and  stood  calm  and  smiling.  When  he  raised 
his  voice,  however,  the  grand  assault  was 
made.  Only  a  double  cordon  of  constables 
massed  around  the  stage  kept  him  from  be- 
ing overwhelmed.  In  the  free-for-all  fight 
that  followed  one  man  was  killed  and  many 
injured. 

Anything  like  a  speech  was  hopeless:  the 
main  task  was  to  save  the  speaker's  life,  for 
outside  in  the  streets  a  bloodthirsty  rabble 
waited  for  its  prey.    Lloyd  George  started 


224.         The  War  After  the  War 

to  face  them  single-handed  and  it  was  only 
when  he  was  told  that  such  procedure  would 
not  only  foolishly  endanger  his  life  but  the 
lives  of  his  party  which  included  several 
women,  he  consented  to  escape  through  a 
side  door,  wearing  a  policeman's  helmet  and 
coat. 

Fourteen  years  later  Lloyd  George  re- 
turned to  Birmingham  acclaimed  as  a  Sa- 
viour of  Empire.  Such  have  been  the  con- 
trasts in  this  career  of  careers. 

Fortunately  England,  like  the  rest  of  the 
world,  forgets.  The  mists  of  unpopularity 
that  hung  about  the  little  Welshman  van- 
ished under  the  sheer  brilliancy  of  the  man. 
When  the  Conservative  Government  fell  af- 
ter the  Boer  War  he  was  not  only  a  Cabinet 
possibility  but  a  necessity.  The  Government 
had  to  have  him.  From  that  time  on  they 
needed  him  in  their  business. 

Lloyd  George  drew  the  dullest  and  dusti- 
est of  all  portfolios — the  Board  of  Trade. 
He  found  the  post  lifeless  and  academic;  he 
vivified  and  galvanised  it  and  made  it  a  vital 
branch  of  party  life  and  dispute.  It  is  the 
Lloyd  George  way. 

Here  you  find  the  first  big  evidence  of  one 


The  Man  Lloyd  George  225 

of  the  great  Lloyd  George  qualities  that  has 
stood  him  in  such  good  stead  these  recent 
turbulent  years.  He  became,  like  Henry 
Clay,  the  Great  Conciliator.  The  whole 
widespread  labour  and  industrial  fabric  of 
Great  Britain  was  geared  up  to  his  desk.  It 
shook  with  unrest  and  was  studded  with 
strife.  Much  of  this  clash  subsided  when 
Lloyd  George  came  into  office  because  he 
had  the  peculiar  knack  of  bringing  groups 
of  contending  interests  together.  Men 
learned  then,  as  they  found  out  later,  that 
when  they  went  into  conference  with  Lloyd 
George  they  might  as  well  leave  their  con- 
victions outside  the  door  with  their  hats  and 
umbrellas. 

To  this  policy  of  readjustment  he  also 
brought  the  laurel  of  constructive  legislation. 
To  him  England  owes  the  famous  Patents 
Bill  which  gives  English  labour  a  share  in 
the  English  manufacture  of  all  foreign  in- 
vention; the  Merchant  Shipping  Bill  which 
safeguards  the  interest  of  English  sailor  and 
shipper;  and  the  Port  of  London  Bill  which 
made  the  British  metropolis  immune  from 
foreign  ship  menace. 

England  was  fast  learning  to  lean  on  the 


226         The  War  After  the  War 

grey-eyed  Welshman.  He  came  to  be  known 
as  the  "Government  Mascot" :  he  was  con- 
tinually pulling  his  party's  chestnuts  out  of 
the  fire  of  failure  or  folly.  George  had  be- 
gun to  "do  it"  and  in  a  big  way. 

Likewise  the  whole  country  was  beginning 
to  feel  pride  in  his  performance  as  the  fol- 
lowing story,  which  has  been  adapted  to 
various  other  celebrities,  will  attest: 

Lloyd  George  sat  one  day  in  the  compart- 
ment of  a  train  that  was  held  up  at  the  sta- 
tion at  Cardiff.  A  porter  carrying  a  travel- 
ler's luggage  noticed  him  and  called  his  cli- 
ent's attention,  saying: 

"There  is  Lloyd  George  himself  in  that 
train." 

The  traveller  seemed  indifferent  and  again 
the  porter  called  attention  to  the  budding 
great  man.  After  persistent  efforts  to  rouse 
his  interest,  the  tourist,  much  nettled,  said 
tartly : 

"Suppose  it  is.    He's  not  God  Almighty." 

"Ah,"  replied  the  porter,  "remember  he's 
young  yet." 

When  Lloyd  George  became  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer  under  Asquith  no  one  was 
surprised.    It  is  typical  of  the  man  that  he 


The  Man  Lloyd  George  227 

should  have  leaped  from  the  lowest  to  the 
highest  place  but  one  in  the  Cabinet. 

As  Chancellor  he  had  at  last  the  oppor- 
tunity to  fulfill  his  democratic  destiny. 
Whatever  Lloyd  George  may  be,  one  thing 
is  certain:  he  is  essentially  a  man  of  the 
masses.  With  his  famous  People's  Budget 
he  legislated  sympathy  into  the  law.  It 
meant  the  whole  kindling  social  programme 
of  Old  Age  pensions,  Health  and  Unemploy- 
ment insurance,  increased  income  tax  and 
an  enlarged  death  duty.  As  most  people 
know,  it  put  much  of  the  burden  of  English 
taxation  on  the  pocketbooks  of  the  people 
who  could  best  afford  to  pay.  The  Duke- 
baiting  began. 

Just  as  he  had  fought  for  a  Free  Wales 
so  did  he  now  struggle  for  a  Free  Land. 
All  his  amazing  picturesqueness  of  expres- 
sion came  into  play.  He  contended  that  Mo- 
nopoly had  made  land  so  valuable  in  Britain 
that  it  almost  sold  by  the  grain,  like  radium. 
In  commenting  on  the  heavy  taxes  levied  by 
the  land  autocrats  upon  commercial  enter- 
prise in  London  he  made  his  famous  phrase : 

"This  is  not  business.     It  is  blackmail!" 

To  democracy  the  Budget  meant  economic 


228         The  War  After  the  War 

emancipation:  the  banishment  of  hunger 
from  the  hearth:  the  solace  of  an  old  age 
free  from  want.  It  made  Lloyd  George 
''The  Little  Brother  of  the  Poor."  To  the 
Aristocracy  it  was  the  gauge  of  battle  for 
the  bitterest  class  war  ever  waged  in  Eng- 
land: violation  of  ancient  privilege. 

The  fight  for  this  programme  made  Lloyd 
George  the  best  known  and  most  detested 
man  in  England.  To  hate  him  was  one  of 
the  accomplishments  of  titled  folk  to  whom 
his  very  name  was  a  hissing  and  a  by-word. 
Massed  behind  him  were  the  common  peo- 
ple whose  champion  he  was :  arrayed  against 
him  were  the  powers  of  wealth  and  rank. 

In  this  campaign  Lloyd  George  used  the 
three  great  weapons  that  he  has  always 
brought  to  bear.  First  and  foremost  was  the 
force  of  his  personality,  for  he  swept  Eng- 
land with  a  tidal  wave  of  impassioned  elo- 
quence. Second,  he  unloosed  as  never  be- 
fore the  reservoirs  of  ink,  for  he  used  every 
device  of  newspaper  and  pamphlet  to  drive 
home  his  message.  He  even  printed  his 
creed  in  Gaelic,  Welsh  and  Erse.  Third,  he 
employed  his  kinship  with  the  people  to  the 
fullest  extent.      The  Commoner  won.     As 


The  Man  Lloyd  George  229 

the  great  structure  of  social  reform  rose  un- 
der his  dynamic  powers  so  did  the  influence 
of  the  House  of  Lords  crumble  like  an  Edi- 
fice of  Cards.  Democracy  in  England  meant 
something  at  last! 

The  tumult  and  the  shouting  died,  the 
smoke  cleared,  and  Lloyd  George  stood  re- 
vealed as  England's  Strong  Man,  a  sort  of 
Atlas  upholding  the  World  of  Public  Life 
and  much  of  its  responsibilities. 

Now  for  the  first  time  he  was  caught  up 
in  the  fabric  of  the  Crimson  Net  that  a  few 
years  later  was  to  haul  nearly  all  Europe  into 
war.  In  191 1  Germany  made  a  hostile  dem- 
onstration in  Morocco.  Although  England 
had  no  territorial  interests  there,  it  was  im- 
portant for  many  reasons  to  warn  the  Kaiser 
that  she  would  oppose  his  policy  with  armed 
force  if  necessary.  A  strong  voice  was  need- 
ed to  sound  this  note.    Lloyd  George  did  it. 

Hence  it  came  about  that  the  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer  stood  in  the  Mansion 
House  on  a  certain  momentous  day  and 
hurled  the  defi  at  the  War  Lord.  It  called 
the  Teuton  bluff  for  a  while  at  least.  In 
the  light  of  later  events  this  speech  became 
historic.    Not  only  did  Lloyd  George  declare 


230         The  War  After  the  War 

that  "national  honour  is  no  party  question," 
but  he  affirmed  that  "the  peace  of  the  world 
is  much  more  likely  to  be  secured  if  all  the 
nations  realise  fairly  what  the  conditions  of 
peace  must  be." 

Persistent  pacifist  propagandists  to-day 
may  well  take  warning  from  that  utterance. 
He  still  believes  it. 

The  spark  that  flashed  at  Agadir  now 
burst  into  flame.  The  Great  War  broke  and 
half  the  world  saw  red.  What  Lloyd  George 
believed  impossible  now  became  bitter  and 
wrathful  reality.  Though  he  did  not  know 
it  at  the  moment,  the  supreme  opportunity 
of  his  life  lay  on  the  lap  of  the  god  of  Bat- 
tles. 

The  Lloyd  George  who  sat  in  council  in 
Downing  Street  was  no  dreaming  pacifist. 
He  who  had  tried  to  stop  the  irresistible 
flood  of  the  Boer  War  now  rode  the  full 
swell  of  the  storm  that  threatened  for  the 
moment  to  engulf  all  Britain. 

As  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  he  was 
called  upon  to  shape  the  fiscal  policies  that 
would  be  the  determining  factor  in  the  War 
of  Wars.  "The  last  £100,000,000  will  win," 
he  said.    Only  one  other  man  in  England — 


The  Man  Lloyd  George  231 

Lord  Kitchener — approached  him  in  im- 
mense responsibility  of  office  in  the  con- 
fidence of  the  people.  It  was  a  proud  but 
equally  terrifying  moment. 

Then  indeed  the  little  Welshman  became 
England's  Handy  Man.  As  custodian  of  the 
British  Pocketbook  he  had  a  full-sized  job. 
But  that  was  only  part  of  the  larger  demand 
now  made  on  his  service.  Popular  faith  re- 
garded him  as  the  Nation's  First  Aid,  infal- 
lible remedy  for  every  crisis. 

If  a  compromise  with  Labor  or  Capital 
had  to  be  effected  it  was  Lloyd  George  who 
sat  at  the  head  of  the  table :  if  an  Ally  needed 
counsel  or  inspiration  it  was  the  Chancellor 
who  sped  across  the  water  and  laid  down  the 
law  at  Paris  or  Petrograd:  if  the  Cause  of 
Empire  clamoured  for  expression  from  Gov- 
ernment Seat  or  animated  rostrum,  he  stood 
forth  as  the  Herald  of  Freedom.  So  it  went 
all  through  those  dark  closing  months  of 
1914  as  reverse  after  reverse  shook  the  Brit- 
ish arms  and  brought  home  the  realisation 
that  the  war  would  be  long  and  costly. 

The  year  191 5  dawned  full  of  gloom  for 
England  but  pointing  a  fresh  star  for  the 
career  of  Lloyd  George.    Although  the  first 


232         The  War  After  the  War 

wave  of  Kitchener's  new  army  had  dashed 
against  the  German  lines  in  France  and  es- 
tablished another  tradition  for  British  val- 
our, the  air  of  England  became  charged  with 
an  ominous  feeling  that  something  was 
wrong  at  the  front.  The  German  advance 
in  the  west  had  been  well  nigh  triumphant. 
Reckless  bravery  alone  could  not  prevail 
against  the  avalanche  of  Teutonic  steel. 

All  the  while  the  imperturbable  Kitchener 
sat  at  his  desk  in  the  War  Office — another 
man  of  Blood  and  Iron.  He  ran  the  war  as 
he  thought  it  should  be  run  despite  the  criti- 
cism that  began  to  beat  about  his  head.  To 
the  average  Englander  he  was  a  king  who 
could  do  no  wrong.  But  the  conduct  of  war 
had  changed  mightily  since  Kitchener  last 
led  his  troops.  Like  Business  it  had  become 
a  new  Science,  fought  with  new  weapons 
and  demanding  an  elastic  intelligence  that 
kept  pace  with  the  swift  march  of  military 
events.  The  Germans  were  using  every  in- 
vention that  marvellous  efficiency  and  pre- 
paredness could  devise.  They  met  ancient 
England  shrapnel  with  modern  deadly  and 
devastating  high-explosives.    If  the  war  was 


The  Man  Lloyd  George  233 

to  be  won  this  condition  had  to  be  changed 
— and  at  once. 

Two  men  in  England — Lloyd  George  and 
Lord  Northclifife — understood  this  situation. 
Fortunately  they  are  both  men  of  coura- 
geous mould  and  unwavering  purpose.  One 
day  Northcliffe  sent  the  military  expert  of 
the  Times  (which  he  owns)  to  France  to  in- 
vestigate conditions.  He  found  that  the 
greatest  need  of  the  English  Army  was  for 
high-explosives.  They  were  as  necessary 
as  bread.  Into  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  col- 
umn he  compressed  this  news.  Instead  of 
submitting  it  to  the  Censor  who  would  have 
denied  it  publication,  Northcliffe  published 
the  despatch  and  with  it  the  revelation  of 
Kitchener's  long  and  serious  omission.  He 
not  only  risked  suspension  and  possible  sup- 
pression of  his  newspapers,  but  also  hazard- 
ed his  life  because  a  great  wave  of  indigna- 
tion arose  over  what  seemed  to  be  an  unwar- 
ranted attack  upon  an  idol  of  the  people.  But 
it  was  the  truth  nevertheless. 

At  a  time  when  England  was  supposed  to 
be  sensation-proof  this  revelation  fell  like  a 
forty-two  centimetre  shell.    It  was  an  amaz- 


234         The  War  After  the  War 

Ing  and  dramatic  demonstration  of  the  pow- 
er of  the  press  and  it  created  a  sensation. 

Shell  shortage  at  the  front  had  full  mate 
in  a  varied  deficiency  at  home.  Ammunition 
contracts  had  been  let  to  private  firms  at  ex- 
cessive prices :  labour  was  restricting  output 
and  breaking  into  periodic  dissension :  drink 
was  deadening  energy:  in  short,  all  the 
forces  that  should  have  worked  together  for 
the  Imperial  good  were  pulling  apart. 

Northcliffe  began  a  silent  but  aggressive 
crusade  for  reform  in  his  newspapers,  while 
Lloyd  George  let  loose  the  powers  of  his 
tongue.  A  national  crisis,  literally  precipi- 
tated by  these  two  men,  arose.  The  Liberal 
Government  fell  and  out  of  its  wreck 
emerged  the  Coalition  Cabinet.  This  weld- 
ing of  one-time  enemies  to  meet  grave 
emergency  did  more  than  wipe  out  party 
lines  in  an  hour  that  threatened  the  Em- 
pire's very  existence. 

The  reorganised  Cabinet  knew — as  all 
England  knew — that  the  greatest  require- 
ment was  not  only  men  but  munitions.  A 
galvanic  personality  was  necessary  to  organ- 
ise and  direct  the  force  that  could  save  the 
day.    A  new  Cabinet  post — the  Ministry  of 


The  Man  Lloyd  George  235 

Munitions — was  created.  Who  could  fill  it 
was  the  question.  There  was  neither  doubt 
nor  uncertainty  about  the  answer.  It  was 
embodied  In  one  man. 

The  little  Welshman  became  Minister  of 
Munitions. 

Lloyd  George  had  led  many  a  forlorn  hope 
by  taking  up  the  task  that  weaker  hands  had 
laid  down.  Here,  however,  was  a  situation 
without  precedent  in  a  life  that  was  a  rebuke 
to  convention.  To  succeed  to  an  organised 
and  going  post  these  perilous  war  times  was 
In  itself  a  difficult  job.  In  the  case  of  the 
Ministry  of  Munitions  there  was  nothing  to 
succeed.  Lloyd  George  had  been  given  a 
blank  order :  it  was  up  to  him  to  fill  it.  He 
had  to  create  a  whole  branch  of  Government 
from  the  ground  up.  All  his  powers  of  tact 
and  persuasion  were  called  into  play.  For 
one  thing  he  had  to  fit  the  old  established 
Ordnance  Department  rooted  in  tradition 
and  jealous  of  its  prerogatives  into  the  new 
scheme  of  things. 

Lloyd  George  was  no  business  man,  but 
he  knew  how  business  affairs  should  be  con- 
ducted. He  knew,  too,  that  America  had 
reared  the  empire  of  business  on  close  knit 


236         The  War  After  the  War 

and  efficient  organisation.  He  did  what  An- 
drew Carnegie  or  any  other  captain  of  cap- 
ital would  do.  He  called  together  the 
Schwabs,  the  Edisons,  the  Garys  and  the 
Westinghouses  of  the  Kingdom  and  made 
them  his  work  fellows. 

From  every  corner  of  the  Empire  he 
drafted  brains  and  experience.  He  wanted 
workers  without  stint,  so  he  started  a  Bureau 
of  Labor  Supply:  he  needed  publicity,  so  he 
set  up  an  Advertising  Department :  to  com- 
pete with  the  Germans  he  realised  that  he 
would  need  every  inventive  resource  that 
England  could  command,  so  he  founded  an 
Invention  and  Research  Bureau :  he  saw  the 
disorganisation  attending  the  output  of 
shells  in  private  establishments,  so  he  plant- 
ed the  Union  Jack  in  nearly  every  mill  and 
took  over  the  control  of  British  Industry: 
he  found  labour  at  its  old  trick  of  impeding 
progress,  so  with  a  Munitions  Act  he  prac- 
tically conscripted  the  men  of  forge  and  mill 
into  an  industrial  army  that  was  almost  un- 
der martial  law.  He  cut  red  tape  and  in- 
jected red  blood  into  the  Department  that 
meant  national  preservation.  In  brief,  Lloyd 


The  Man  Lloyd  George  237 

George  was  on  the  job  and  things  were  hap- 
pening. 

The  Minister  established  himself  in  an  old 
mansion  in  Whitehall  Garden  where  belles 
and  beaux  had  danced  the  stately  minuet.  It 
became  a  dynamo  of  energy  whose  wires  ra- 
diated everywhere.  *'More  Munitions"  was 
the  creed  that  flew  from  the  masthead. 

A  typical  thing  happened.  The  working 
force  of  the  Ministry  grew  by  leaps  and 
bounds :  already  the  hundreds  of  clerks  were 
jam  up  against  the  confining  walls  of  the  old 
grey  building.  Lloyd  George  sent  for  one 
of  his  lieutenants  and  said: 

"We  must  have  more  room." 

"We  have  already  reported  that  fact  and 
the  War  Office  says  it  will  take  three  months 
to  build  new  office  space,"  was  the  reply. 

"Then  put  up  tents,"  snapped  the  little 
man,  "and  we  will  work  under  canvas." 

Realising  that  his  principal  weapons  were 
machines,  Lloyd  George  took  a  census  of  all 
the  machinery  in  the  United  Kingdom  and 
got  every  pound  of  productive  capacity  down 
on  paper.  He  was  not  long  in  finding  out 
why  the  ammunition  output  was  shy.  Only 
a  fifth  of  the  lathes  and  tools  used  for  Gov- 


238         The  War  After  the  War 


ernment  work  ran  at  night.  "These  ma- 
chines must  work  every  hour  of  the  twenty- 
four,"  he  said.  Before  a  fortnight  had 
passed  every  munitions  mill  ground  inces- 
santly. 

These  machines  needed  adequate  manning. 
Lloyd  George  thereupon  created  the  plan 
that  enlisted  the  new  army  of  Munitions 
Volunteers.  Nelson-like  he  issued  the  thrill- 
ing proclamation  that  England  expected 
every  machine  to  do  its  duty.  It  meant  the 
end  of  restricted  output. 

With  the  ban  off  restriction  he  likewise 
clamped  the  lid  down  on  drink.  Munitions 
workers  could  only  go  to  the  public  houses 
within  certain  hours:  the  man  who  brought 
liquor  into  a  Government  controlled  plant 
faced  fines  and  if  the  offence  was  repeated, 
a  still  more  drastic  punishment. 

Lloyd  George  began  a  censorship  of  la- 
bour which  disclosed  the  fact  that  many 
skilled  workers  were  wasting  time  on  un- 
skilled tasks.  Lloyd  George  now  began  to 
dilute  the  skilled  forces  with  unskilled  who 
included  thousands  of  women. 

Right  here  came  the  first  battle.  Labour 
rebelled.     It  could  find  a  way  to  get  liquor 


The  Man  Lloyd  George  239 

but  it  resented  dilution  and  cried  out  ag^ainst 
capacity  output.  The  Shell  Master  again  be- 
came the  Conciliator.  He  curbed  the  wild 
horses,  agreeing  to  a  restoration  of  pre-war 
shop  conditions  as  soon  as  peace  came.  All 
he  knew  was  the  fact  that  the  guns  hungered 
and  that  it  was  up  to  him  to  feed  them. 

The  wheels  were  not  whirring  fast  enough 
to  suit  Lloyd  George.  "We  must  build  our 
own  factories,"  he  said.  Almost  over  night 
rose  the  mills  whose  slogan  was  ^'English 
shells  for  English  guns."  In  speeding  up 
the  English  output  the  Welshman  was  also 
equipping  England  to  meet  coming  needs, 
laying  the  first  stone  of  the  structure  that  is 
fast  becoming  an  Empire  Self -Contained. 

Lloyd  George  realised  that  he  could  not 
run  every  munitions  plant,  whereupon  he  or- 
ganised local  Boards  of  Control  in  the  great 
ordnance  centres  like  Woolwich,  Sheffield, 
Newcastle  and  Middleboro.  Each  became  a 
separate  industrial  principality  but  all  bound 
up  by  hooks  of  steel  to  the  Little  Wizard 
who  sat  enthroned  at  Whitehall. 

England  became  a  vast  arsenal,  throbbing 
with  ceaseless  activity.  The  smoke  that 
trailed  from  the  myriad  stacks  was  the  ban- 


240         The  War  After  the  War 

ner  of  a  new  and  triumphant  faith  in  the 
future. 

What  was  the  result?  Up  and  down  the 
western  battle  front  English  cannon  spoke 
in  terms  of  victory.  No  longer  was  British 
gunner  required  to  husband  shells:  to  meet 
crash  with  silence.  He  hurled  back  steel  for 
steel  and  all  because  England's  Hope  had  an- 
swered England's  Call.  Lloyd  George  had 
done  it  again. 

I  first  met  Lloyd  George  during  those 
crowded  days  when  he  was  Commander-in- 
Chief  of  the  host  that  fed  the  firing  line. 
Under  his  magnetic  direction  British  indus- 
try had  been  forged  into  a  colossal  munitions 
shop.  No  man  in  England  was  busier:  not 
even  the  King  was  more  inaccessible.  Life 
with  him  was  one  engagement  after  another. 

Now  came  one  of  those  swift  emergencies 
that  seems  to  crowd  so  fast  upon  Lloyd 
George's  life  and  with  it  arose  my  own  op- 
portunity. 

The  British  Trade  Union  Congress  in  an- 
nual session  at  Bristol  had  expressed  La- 
bour's dissatisfaction  over  its  share  of  the 
munitions  profits.  Lloyd  George  had  sent 
them  a  letter  explaining  his  proposed  excess 


The  Man  Lloyd  George  241 

profit  tax,  but  this  apparently  was  not 
enough.    The  delegates  still  growled. 

"Then  I'll  go  down  and  speak  to  them  in 
person,"  said  the  Minister  with  characteris- 
tic energy. 

Thus  it  happened  that  I  journeyed  with 
him  to  the  old  town,  background  of  stirring 
naval  history.  On  the  way  down  half  a 
dozen  department  heads  poured  into  his  re- 
sponsive ears  the  up-to-the-minute  details  of 
the  work  in  hand.  He  became  a  Human 
Sponge  soaking  up  the  waters  of  fact. 

At  Bristol  in  a  crowded  stuffy  hall  he 
faced  what  was  at  the  start  almost  a  menac- 
ing crowd.  Yet  as  he  addressed  them  you 
would  have  thought  that  he  had  known  every 
man  and  woman  in  the  assembly  all  their 
lives.  The  easy,  intimate,  frank  manner  of 
his  delivery :  his  immediate  claim  to  kinship 
with  them  on  the  ground  of  a  common  lowly 
birth :  his  quick  and  stirring  appeal  to  their 
patriotism  swept  aside  all  discord  and  disaf- 
fection. As  he  gave  an  eloquent  account  of 
his  stewardship  you  could  see  the  audience 
plastic  under  his  spell.  The  people  who  had 
assembled  to  heckle  sat  spellbound.  When 
he  had  finished  they  not  only  gave  him  an 


242         The  War  After  the  War 

ovation  but  pledged  themselves  anew  to  the 
gospel  of  "More  Munitions." 

It  was  on  the  train  back  to  London  that  I 
got  a  glimpse  of  the  real  Lloyd  George. 
What  Roosevelt  would  have  called  ''a  bully 
day"  had  left  its  impress  upon  the  little  man. 
His  long  grey  hair  hung  matted  over  a  wilted 
collar :  there  was  a  wistful  sort  of  weariness 
in  his  eyes.  He  sank  into  a  big  chair  and 
looked  for  a  long  time  in  silence  at  the  fly- 
ing landscape.  Then  suddenly  he  aroused 
himself  and  began  to  talk.  Like  many  men 
of  his  type  whom  you  go  to  interview  he  be- 
gan by  interviewing  the  interviewer. 

The  first  two  questions  that  Lloyd  George 
asked  me  showed  what  was  going  on  in  his 
mind,  for  they  were : 

"What  were  Lincoln's  views  of  conscrip- 
tion, and  did  your  soldiers  vote  during  the 
Civil  War?" 

There  was  definite  method  in  these  que- 
ries, for  already  the  Shadow  of  Conscription 
had  begun  to  fall  over  all  England.  It  was 
Lloyd  George,  aided  by  Northclifife,  who  led 
the  fight  for  it. 

The  talk  always  went  back  to  the  great 


The  Man  Lloyd  George         243 

war.  When  I  spoke  of  his  speech  at  Bristol 
his  face  kindled  and  he  said: 

"Have  you  stopped  to  realise  that  this  war 
is  not  so  much  a  war  of  human  mass  against 
human  mass  as  it  is  a  war  of  machine  against 
machine?  It  is  a  duel  between  the  English 
and  German  workman." 

You  cannot  talk  long  with  Lloyd  George 
without  touching  on  democracy.  This  is  his 
chosen  ground.  I  shall  never  forget  the  fer- 
vour with  which  he  said: 

"The  European  struggle  is  a  struggle  for 
world  liberty.  It  will  mean  in  the  end  a. 
victory  for  all  democracy  in  its  fight  for 
equality." 

When  I  asked  him  to  write  an  inscription 
for  a  friend  of  mine  and  express  the  hope 
that  lay  closest  to  his  heart,  he  took  a  card 
from  his  pocket,  gazed  for  a  moment  at  the 
rushing  country  now  shot  through  with  the 
first  evening  lights,  and  then  wrote:  "Let 
Freedom  win." 

A  few  days  later  Lloyd  George  made  still 
another  appearance  in  his  now  familiar  role 
of  England's  Deliverer.  The  South  Wales 
coal  miners,  2,000,000  in  number,  went  on 
strike  at  a  time  when  Coal  meant  Life  to  the 


244         The  War  After  the  War 

Empire.  There  is  no  need  of  asking  the  name 
of  the  man  who  went  to  calm  this  storm. 
Only  one  was  eligible  and  he  lost  no  time. 

Lloyd  George  did  not  call  a  conference  at 
Cardiff:  he  went  straight  to  Wales  and 
spoke  to  the  workers  at  the  mouth  of  the 
pit.  What  arbitration  and  conciliation  had 
failed  to  do,  his  hypnotic  oratory  achieved. 
The  men  went  back  to  the  mines  with  a  cheer. 

A  week  later  at  the  London  Opera  House 
he  made  a  notable  speech  to  the  Conference 
of  Representatives  of  the  Miners  of  Great 
Britain.  To  have  heard  that  speech  was  to 
get  a  liberal  education  in  the  art  of  phrase- 
ology and  to  carry  always  in  memory  the 
magic  of  the  man's  voice.  In  this  speech  he 
said: 


"In  war  and  peace  King  Coal  is  the  para- 
mount industry.  Every  pit  is  a  trench :  every 
workshop  a  rampart:  every  yard  that  can 
turn  out  munitions  of  war  is  a  fortress.  .  .  . 
Coal  is  the  most  terrible  of  enemies  and  the 
most  potent  of  friends.  .  .  .  When  you  see 
the  seas  clear  and  the  British  flag  flying  with 
impunity  from  realm  to  realm  and  from 
shore  to  shore — when  you  find  the  German 


The  Man  Lloyd  George  245 

flag  banished  from  the  face  of  the  ocean, 
who  had  done  it  ?  The  British  miner  helping 
the  British  sailor." 

Small  wonder  that  after  this  effort  the 
miners  of  Wales  should  acclaim  their  gallant 
countryman  as  Industrial  Messiah. 

You  would  think  that  by  this  time  Eng- 
land had  made  her  final  tax  on  the  resource 
of  her  Ready  Man.  But  she  had  not.  There 
came  the  desolate  day  when  the  news  flashed 
over  England  that  the  ''Hampshire"  had 
gone  down  and  with  it  Kitchener.  Follow- 
ing the  shock  of  this  blow,  greater  than  any 
that  German  arms  could  deliver,  arose  the 
faltering  question,  "Who  is  there  to  take  his 
place?" 

It  did  not  falter  long.  Once  more  the 
S.O.S.  call  of  a  Nation  in  Distress  flashed 
out  and  again  the  spark  found  its  man. 
Lloyd  George  went  from  Ministry  of  Muni- 
tions to  sit  in  Kitchener's  seat  at  the  War 
Office.  Unlike  the  Hero  of  Khartoum,  he 
had  no  service  in  the  field  to  his  credit.  But 
he  knew  men  and  he  also  knew  how  to  deploy 
them.  Just  as  he  brought  the  Veterans  of 
Business  to  sit  around  the  Munitions  Board, 


246         The  War  After  the  War 

so  did  he  now  marshal  war-tried  campaign- 
ers for  the  Strategy  Table.  The  Somme 
blow  was  struck:  the  new  War  Chieftain 
proved  his  worth. 

In  the  midst  of  all  these  new  exactions 
Lloyd  George  found  time  for  other  and 
arduous  national  labours.  Two  more  epi- 
sodes will  serve  to  close  this  narrative  of  un- 
precedented achievement. 

When  the  recent  Irish  Revolt  had  regis- 
tered its  tragedy  of  blood,  death  and  execu- 
tion, menacing  the  very  structure  of  Empire, 
Lloyd  George  became  the  Emissary  of  Peace 
to  the  Isle  of  Unrest. 

Again,  when  prying  peacemakers  sought 
to  intrude  themselves  upon  the  nations  en- 
gaged in  a  life  and  death  struggle,  it  was 
Lloyd  George,  in  a  remarkable  interview, 
who  warned  all  would-be  winners  of  the  No- 
bel prize  that  peace  talk  was  unfriendly,  that 
"there  was  neither  clock  nor  calendar  in  the 
British  Army,"  that  the  Allies  would  make 
it  a  finish  fight. 

So  it  went  until  gloom  once  more  took  up 
its  abode  amid  the  Allies.  Bucharest  fell 
before  the  German  assault:  Greece  seethed 
with  the  unhappy  mess  that  Entente  diplo- 


The  Man  Lloyd  George         247 

macy  had  made  of  a  great  opportunity :  land 
and  sea  registered  daily  some  fresh  evidence 
of  Teutonic  advance.    What  was  wrong? 

England  speculated,  yet  one  man  knew  and 
that  man  was  Lloyd  George.  He  realised 
the  futility  of  a  many-headed  direction  of 
the  war:  with  his  swift  insight  he  saw  the 
tragic  toll  that  all  this  cross  purpose  was 
taking.  He  made  a  demand  on  Asquith  for 
a  small  War  Council  that  would  put  dash, 
vigour  and  success  into  the  British  side  of 
the  conflict.  The  Premier  refused  to  assent 
and  Lloyd  George  resigned  as  War  Chief. 
The  Government  toppled  in  a  crisis  that  men- 
aced the  very  future  of  the  nation. 

Great  Britain  stood  aghast.  Lloyd  George 
stood  for  all  the  popular  confidence  in  vic- 
tory that  the  nation  felt.  For  a  moment  it 
appeared  as  if  the  very  foundations  of  au- 
thority had  crumbled. 

But  not  for  long.  When  Bonar  Law  de- 
clined to  reestablish  the  Government  the  oft- 
repeated  cry  for  action  that  had  invariably 
found  its  answer  in  the  intrepid  little  Welsh- 
man, again  rose  up.  Upon  him  devolved  the 
task  of  constructing  a  new  Cabinet  which  he 
headed  as  Prime  Minister.    He  now  reached 


248         The  War  After  the  War 

the  inevitable  goal  toward  which  he  had  un- 
consciously marched  ever  since  that  faraway 
day  when  his  voice  was  first  heard  in  Parlia- 
ment. 

Even  with  Cabinet-making  Lloyd  George 
was  a  Revolutionist.  He  cut  down  the  mem- 
bership from  twenty-four  to  five,  establish- 
ing a  compact  and  effective  War  Council 
whose  sole  task  is  to  ''win  the  war."  He 
centred  more  authority  in  the  Premiership 
than  the  English  system  has  ever  known  be- 
fore.   He  virtually  became  Dictator. 

On  the  other  hand,  he  raised  the  number 
of  Ministers  outside  the  Cabinet  from  nine- 
teen to  twenty-eight.  He  scattered  the  co- 
terie of  lawyers  who  had  so  long  comprised 
the  Government  Trust  and  put  in  men  with 
red  blood  and  proved  achievement — in  the 
main,  self-made  like  himself.  He  installed 
a  trained  and  competent  business  man  of  the 
type  of  Sir  Albert  Stanley,  raised  in  the  hard 
school  of  American  transportation,  as  Presi- 
dent of  the  Board  of  Trade:  he  drafted  a 
seasoned  commercial  veteran  like  Lord 
Rhondda  (D.  A.  Thomas),  for  President  of 
the  Local  Government  Board:  he  raised  his 
old  and  experienced  aide,  Dr.  Christopher 


The  Man  Lloyd  George         249 

Addison,  to  be  Minister  of  Munitions:  he 
made  Lord  Derby,  who  had  conducted  the 
great  recruiting  campaign,  Minister  of  War : 
he  put  Sir  Joseph  Maclay,  an  extensive  ship 
owner,  into  the  post  of  Shipping  Controller. 
Everywhere  he  supplanted  politicians  with 
doers. 

What  was  equally  important  he  continued 
his  role  of  Conciliator,  for  he  placated  La- 
bour by  giving  it  a  large  representation  and 
he  took  a  definite  step  toward  the  solution 
of  the  Irish  problem  by  making  Sir  Edward 
Carson  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty. 

Even  as  he  stood  at  what  seemed  the  very 
pinnacle  of  his  power  Destiny  once  more 
marked  him  for  its  own.  He  had  scarcely 
announced  his  Cabinet  when  the  world  was 
electrified  by  the  news  of  the  German  peace 
proposal.  By  his  own  action  Lloyd  George 
had  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  Council 
charged  with  the  conduct  of  the  war.  To 
the  Wizard  Welshman  therefore  was  put 
squarely  the  responsibility  of  continuing  or 
ending  the  stupendous  struggle. 

Never  before  in  the  history  of  any  coun- 
try was  such  momentous  responsibility  con- 
centrated in  an  individual.     The  dramatic 


250         The  War  After  the  War 

element  with  which  Lloyd  George  had  be- 
come synonymous,  found  an  amazing  ex- 
pression. He  was  ill  in  bed  when  the  Ger- 
man suggestion  was  made.  No  official  an- 
nouncement of  England's  position  in  reply 
could  be  made  until  he  had  recovered.  In 
the  interim  the  whole  world  trembled  with 
suspense  while  stock  markets  shivered.  The 
Premier's  name  was  on  every  tongue:  the 
eyes  of  the  universe  were  focussed  on  him. 
It  was  indeed  his  Great  Hour. 

In  what  was  the  most  significant  speech  of 
his  career,  and  with  all  the  force  and  fer- 
vour at  his  command,  he  stated  the  Empire's 
determination  to  fulfill  its  obligations  to  the 
trampled  and  ravaged  countries.  On  that 
speech  hung  the  stability  of  international 
financial  credit,  the  lives  of  millions  of  men 
and  the  whole  future  security  of  Europe. 

You  have  seen  the  moving  picture  of  a 
tumultuous  life:  what  of  the  personality  be- 
hind it? 

Reducing  the  Prime  Minister  to  a  for- 
mula you  find  that  he  is  fifty  per  cent 
Roosevelt  in  the  virility  and  forcefulness  of 
his  character,  fifteen  per  cent  Bryan  in  the 
purely  demagogic  phase  of  his  makeup,  while 


The  Man  Lloyd  George  251 

the  rest  is  canny  Celt  opportunism.  It  makes 
a  dazzling  and  well-nigh  irresistible  com- 
posite. 

It  is  with  Roosevelt  that  the  best  and  hap- 
piest comparison  can  be  made.  Indeed  I 
know  of  no  more  convincing  interpretation 
of  the  Thing  that  is  Lloyd  George  than  to 
point  this  live  parallel.  For  Lloyd  George 
is  the  British  Roosevelt — the  Imperial  Rough 
Rider.  Instead  of  using  the  Big  Stick,  he 
employs  the  Big  Voice.  No  two  leaders  ever 
had  so  much  in  common. 

Each  is  more  of  an  institution  than  a  mere 
man:  each  dramatises  himself  in  everything 
he  does:  each  has  the  same  genius  for  the 
benevolent  assimilation  of  idea  and  fact. 
They  are  both  persistent  but  brilliant  **cram- 
mers."  Trust  Lloyd  George  to  know  all 
about  the  man  who  comes  to  see  him  whether 
he  be  statesman,  author,  explorer  or  plain 
captain  of  industry.  It  is  one  of  the  reasons 
why  he  maintains  his  amazing  political  hold. 

Lloyd  George  has  Roosevelt's  striking  gift 
of  phrase-making,  although  he  does  not 
share  the  American's  love  of  letter  writing. 
As  I  have  already  intimated,  whatever  may 
be  his  future,  Lloyd  George  will  never  be 


252         The  War  After  the  War 

confronted  by  accusing  epistle.    None  exists. 

Like  Roosevelt,  Lloyd  George  is  past  mas- 
ter in  the  art  of  effective  publicity.  He  has 
a  monopoly  on  the  British  front  page.  Each 
of  these  remarkable  men  projects  the  fire  and 
magnetism  of  his  dynamic  personality.  Curi- 
ously enough,  each  one  has  been  the  terror 
of  the  Corporate  Evil-doer — the  conspicuous 
target  of  Big  Business  in  his  respective  coun- 
try. Each  one  is  a  dictator  in  the  making, 
and  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  if  Lloyd  George 
lived  in  a  republic,  like  Roosevelt  he  would 
say:  "My  Army,"  "My  Navy"  and  "My 
Policies." 

Roosevelt,  however,  has  one  distinct  ad- 
vantage over  his  British  colleague  in  that  he 
is  a  deeper  student  and  has  a  wider  learning. 

In  one  God-given  gift  Lloyd  George  not 
only  surpasses  Roosevelt  but  every  other  man 
I  have  ever  met.  It  is  an  inspired  oratory 
that  is  at  once  the  wonder  and  the  admira- 
tion of  all  who  hear  it.  He  is  in  many  re- 
spects the  greatest  speaker  of  his  day — the 
one  man  of  his  race  whose  utterance  imme- 
diately becomes  world  property.  The  stage 
lost  a  great  star  when  the  Welsh  David  went 
into  politics.    There  are  those  who  say  that 


The  Man  Lloyd  George         253 

he  acts  all  the  time,  but  that  is  a  matter  of 
opinion  dictated  by  partisan  or  self-interest. 

Lloyd  George  is  what  we  in  America,  and 
especially  those  of  us  born  in  the  South,  call 
the  ''silver-tongued."  His  whole  style  of 
delivery  is  emotional  and  greatly  resembles 
the  technique  of  the  Breckenridge-Watter- 
son  School.  In  his  voice  is  the  soft  me- 
lodious lilt  of  the  Welsh  that  greatly  adds  to 
the  attractiveness  of  his  speech. 

Before  the  public  he  is  always  even-tem- 
pered and  amiable,  serene  and  smiling,  quick 
to  capitalize  interruption  and  drive  home 
the  chance  remark.  He  invariably  estab- 
lishes friendly  relations  with  his  hearers, 
and  he  has  the  extraordinary  ability  to  make 
every  man  and  woman  in  the  audience  be- 
fore him  believe  that  he  is  getting  a  direct 
and  personal  message. 

Lloyd  George  can  be  the  unfettered  poet 
or  the  lion  unleashed.  Shut  your  eyes  as  you 
listen  and  you  can  almost  hear  the  music  of 
mountain  streams  or  the  roar  of  rushing 
cataracts.  In  his  great  moments  his  elo- 
quence is  little  short  of  enthralling,  for  it 
is  filled  with  an  inspired  imagery.  No  living 
man  surpasses  him  in  splendour  of  oratorical 


254         The  War  After  the  War 

expression.  His  speeches  form  a  literature 
all  their  own. 

When,  for  example,  yielding  to  that  per- 
sistent Call  of  Empire  for  his  service  he 
interpreted  England's  cause  in  the  war  at 
Queen's  Hall  in  London,  in  September,  1914, 
in  what  was  in  many  respects  his  noblest 
speech,  he  said  in  referring  to  Belgium  and 
Servia : 

"God  has  chosen  little  nations  as  the  ves- 
sels by  which  He  carries  His  choicest  wines 
to  the  lips  of  humanity,  to  rejoice  their 
hearts,  to  exalt  their  vision,  to  stimulate  and 
strengthen  their  faith;  and  if  we  had  stood 
by  when  two  little  nations  were  being 
crushed  and  broken  by  the  brutal  hands  of 
barbarism,  our  shame  would  have  rung  down 
the  everlasting  ages." 

In  closing  this  speech  which  he  gave 
the  characteristic  Lloyd  George  title  of 
''Through  Terror  to  Triumph,"  he  uttered  a 
peroration  full  of  meaning  and  significance 
to  United  States  in  its  present  hour  of  pride 
and  prosperity.    He  said: 

"We  have  been  living  in  a  sheltered  valley 
for  generations.     We  have  been  too  com- 


The  Man  Lloyd  George         255 

fortable  and  too  indulgent,  many,  perhaps, 
too  selfish,  and  the  stern  hand  of  fate  has 
scourged  us  to  an  elevation  where  we  can 
see  the  everlasting  things  that  matter  for  a 
nation — the  great  peaks  we  had  forgotten, 
of  Honour,  Duty,  Patriotism,  and,  clad  in 
glittering  white,  the  towering  pinacle  of 
Sacrifice  pointing  like  a  rugged  finger  to 
Heaven. 

"We  shall  descend  into  the  valleys  again ; 
but  as  long  as  the  men  and  women  of  this 
generation  last,  they  will  carry  in  their 
hearts  the  image  of  those  mighty  peaks 
whose  foundations  are  not  shaken,  though 
Europe  rock  and  sway  in  the  convulsions  of 
a  great  war." 

Now  take  a  closing  look  at  the  man  him- 
self. You  see  a  stocky,  well-knit  figure,  broad 
of  shoulder  and  deep  of  chest.  The  animated 
body  is  surmounted  by  a  face  that  alter- 
nately beams  and  gleams.  There  are 
strength  and  sensitiveness,  good  humour, 
courage  and  resolution  in  these  features. 
His  eyes  are  large  and  luminous,  aglow  at 
times  with  the  poetry  of  the  Celt:  aflame 


256         The  War  After  the  War 

again  with  the  fervour  of  mighty  purpose. 
He  moves  swiftly.  To  have  him  pass  you  by 
is  to  get  a  breath  of  life. 

To  all  this  strength  and  power  he  brings 
undeniable  charm.  In  action  he  is  like  a  man 
exalted:  in  repose  he  becomes  tender, 
dreamy,  almost  childlike.  His  whole  nature 
seems  to  be  driven  by  a  vast  and  volcanic 
energy.  This  is  why,  like  Roosevelt,  he  has 
been  able  to  crowd  the  achievements  of  half 
a  dozen  careers  into  one.  He  is  indeed  the 
Happy  Warrior. 

Yet  Lloyd  George  knows  how  to  play.  I 
have  known  him  to  work  incessantly  all  day 
and  follow  the  Ministerial  game  far  into  the 
night.  Ten  o'clock  the  next  morning  would 
find  him  on  the  golf  links  at  Walton  Heath 
fresh  and  full  of  vim  and  energy.  At  fifty- 
three  he  is  at  the  very  zenith  of  his  strength. 

Why  has  he  succeeded?  Simply  because 
he  was  born  to  leadership.  Without  being 
profound  he  is  profoundly  moving:  without 
studying  life  he  is  an  unerring  judge  of  men 
and  moods.  Volatile,  masterful  and  above 
all  human  he  is  at  once  the  most  consistent 
and  inconsistent  of  men. 

But  it  is  a  new  Lloyd  George  who  stepped 


The  Man  lAoyd  George  257 

from  unofficial  to  official  stewardship  of 
England:  a  Lloyd  George  with  the  fire- 
brand out  of  his  being,  purged  of  bitter  re- 
volt, chastened  and  mellowed  by  the  years  of 
war  ordeal.  Out  of  contact  with  mighty 
sacrifice  has  come  a  kinship  with  the  spirit. 
He  is  to-day  like  a  man  transformed.  ''Eng- 
land hath  need  of  him." 

There  are  those  who  see  in  the  new 
Ivloyd  George  a  Conservative  in  evolution. 
But  whatever  the  political  product  of  this 
change  may  be,  it  represents  the  equipment 
necessary  to  meet  the  shock  of  peace.  For 
peace  will  demand  a  leadership  no  less  vig- 
orous than  war. 

The  lowly  lad  who  dreamed  of  power  amid 
the  Welsh  Hills  is  to-day  the  Hope  of 
Empire. 


VIII — From  Pedlar  to  Premier 


THE  great  General  who  once  said 
that  war  is  the  graveyard  of  repu- 
tations might  have  added  that  in 
its  fiery  furnace  great  careers  are 
welded.  Out  of  the  Franco-Prussian  con- 
flict emerged  the  Master  Figure  of  Bis- 
marck :  the  Soudan  brought  forth  Kitchener 
and  South  Africa  Lord  Roberts.  The  Great 
Struggle  now  rending  Europe  has  given 
Joffre  to  French  history  and  up  to  the  time 
of  this  writing  it  has  presented  to  the  British 
Empire  no  more  striking  nor  unexpected 
character  than  William  Morris  Hughes,  the 
battling  Prime  Minister  of  Australia — the 
Unknown  who  waked  up  England. 

Even  to  America  where  the  dramatisa- 
tion of  the  Self-made  Idea  has  become  a 
commonplace  thing  the  story  of  his  rise  from 
pedlar  to  premier  has  a  meaning  all  its  own. 
Elsewhere  in  this  book  you  have  seen  how  he 
stirred  Great  Britain  to  the  post-war  com- 
mercial menace  of  the  German.  It  is  pe- 
culiarly fitting  therefore  that  this  narrative, 

258 


From  Pedlar  to  Premier         259 

dedicated  as  it  is  to  the  War  after  the  War, 
should  close  with  some  attempt  at  interpreta- 
tion of  the  personality  of  the  man  who 
sounded  its  first  trumpet  call. 

Like  Lloyd  George,  Hughes  is  a  Welsh- 
man. These  two  remarkable  men,  who  have 
done  so  much  to  rouse  their  people,  have 
more  than  racial  kinship  in  common.  They 
are  both  undersized:  both  rose  from  the 
humble  hearth :  both  made  their  way  to  emi- 
nence by  way  of  the  bar :  both  gripped  popu- 
lar imagination  as  real  leaders  of  democracy. 
They  are  to-day  the  two  principal  imperial 
human  assets. 

Hughes  will  tell  you  that  he  was  born  frail 
and  has  remained  so  ever  since.  This  son 
of  a  carpenter  was  a  weak,  thin,  delicate  boy, 
but  always  a  fighter.  At  school  in  London  he 
was  the  only  Nonconformist  around,  and  the 
biggest  fellows  invariably  picked  upon  him. 
He  could  strike  back  with  his  fists  and  pro- 
tect his  narrow  chest,  but  his  legs  were  so 
thin  that  he  had  to  stufiF  exercise  books  in  his 
stockings  to  safeguard  his  shins. 

Hughes  was  trained  for  teaching,  and  only 
the  restlessness  of  the  Celt  saved  him  from 
a  life  term  in  the  schoolroom.    At  sixteen  he 


260         The  War  After  the  War 

had  become  a  pupil  instructor.  But  the  sea 
always  stirred  his  imagination.  He  would 
wander  down  to  the  East  India  Docks  and 
watch  the  ships  load  with  cargoes  for  spicy 
climes.  One  day  as  he  watched  the  great 
freighters  a  boy  joined  him.  He  looked  very 
sad,  and  when  Hughes  asked  him  the  reason 
he  said  he  wanted  to  go  home  to  visit  his 
people,  but  lacked  the  money. 

"I'll  lend  you  some,"  said  Hughes  impul- 
sively. 

He  went  home  and  out  of  the  lining  of  an 
ancient  concertina  he  produced  thirty  shill- 
ings, all  the  money  he  had  in  the  world.  He 
handed  this  hoard  over  to  his  new-found 
friend  and  promptly  forgot  all  about  it.  He 
kept  on  teaching. 

I  cite  this  little  episode  because  it  was  the 
turning  point  in  a  great  man's  career.  The 
boy  who  borrowed  the  shillings  went  to  Aus- 
tralia. Several  years  later  he  returned  the 
money  and  with  it  this  message:  "This  is 
a  great  country  full  of  opportunity  for  a 
young  man.  Chuck  your  teaching  and  come 
out  here."    Hughes  went. 

Three  months  later — it  was  in  1884 — and 
with  half  a  crown  in  his  pocket  he  walked 


From  Pedlar  to  Premier         261 

ashore  at  Brisbane.  He  looked  so  frail  that 
the  husky  dock  labourers  jeered  at  his  phys- 
ical weakness.  Yet  less  than  ten  years  from 
that  date  he  was  their  militant  leader  march- 
ing on  to  the  Ruler  ship  of  all  Australia. 

In  those  days  Australia  was  a  rough  land. 
Beef,  bullying  and  brawn  were  the  things 
that  counted  most  in  that  paradise  of  ticket- 
of-leave  men.  Hughes  bucked  the  sternest 
game  in  the  world  and  with  it  began  a  series 
of  adventures  that  read  like  a  romance  and 
give  a  stirring  background  to  the  man's  ex- 
traordinary public  achievements. 

Hughes  found  out  at  once  that  all  hope  of 
earning  a  livelihood  by  teaching  in  the  bush 
was  out  of  the  question.  His  money  was 
gone :  he  had  to  exist,  so  he  took  the  first  job 
that  came  his  way.  A  band  of  timber-cut- 
ters about  to  go  for  a  month's  sojourn  in  the 
woods  needed  a  cook,  so  Hughes  became 
their  potslinger.  Frail  as  he  was,  he  seemed 
to  thrive  on  hardship.  In  succession  he  be- 
came sheep  shearer,  railway  labourer,  bound- 
ary rider,  stock  runner,  scrub-cleaner,  coastal 
sailor,  dishwasher  in  a  bush  hotel,  itinerant 
umbrella-mender  and  sheep  drover. 

With  a  small  band  he  once  brought  fifty 


262         The  War  After  the  War 

thousand  sheep  down  from  Queensland  into 
New  South  Wales.  For  fifteen  weeks  he  was 
on  the  tramp,  sleeping  at  night  under  the 
stars,  trudging  the  dusty  roads  all  day.  At 
the  end  of  this  trip  occurred  the  incident  that 
made  him  deaf.  Over  night  he  passed  from 
the  sun-baked  plains  to  a  high  mountain  alti- 
tude. Wet  with  perspiration,  he  slept  out 
with  his  flocks  and  caught  cold.  The  result 
was  an  infirmity  which  is  only  one  of  many 
physical  handicaps  that  this  amazing  little 
man  has  had  to  overcome  throughout  his 
tempestuous  life. 

Yet  he  has  fought  them  all  down.  As  he 
once  humorously  said:  "li  I  had  had  a  con- 
stitution I  should  have  been  dead  long  ago." 

After  all  his  strenuous  bushwhacking  the 
year  1890  found  him  running  a  small  shop  in 
the  suburbs  of  Sydney.  By  day  he  sold 
books  and  newspapers :  at  night  he  repaired 
locks  and  clocks  in  order  to  get  enough 
money  to  buy  law  books.  Into  his  shop 
drifted  sailors  from  the  wharves  with  their 
grievances.  Born  with  a  passionate  love  of 
freedom,  these  sounds  of  revolt  were  as  mu- 
sic to  his  ears.  Figuratively  he  sat  at  the 
feet  of  Henry  George,  whose  "Progress  and 


From  Pedlar  to  Premier  263 

Poverty"  helped  to  shape  the  course  of  his 
thinking.  Lincoln's  letters  and  speeches 
were  among  his  favourites,  too. 

One  night  a  big  dock  bruiser  grabbed  a 
package  of  tobacco  off  the  counter,  but  be- 
fore he  could  move  a  step  Hughes  had 
caught  him  under  the  jaw  with  his  fist.  His 
burly  associates  cheered  the  game  little  shop- 
keeper. They  now  came  to  him  with  their 
troubles  and  he  was  soon  their  friend, 
philosopher  and  guide. 

For  years  the  synonym  for  Australian 
Labour  was  strike.  When  the  unions  were 
merged  into  a  national  body  Hughes  was  the 
unanimous  choice  of  the  husky  stevedores 
for  leader.  He  became  the  Great  Restrainer. 
Never  was  influence  of  lip  and  brain  over 
muscle  and  temper  better  demonstrated.  The 
wild  men  of  the  wharves — the  roughest 
crowd  in  all  labour — ^were  under  his  spell. 
This  nimble-footed  shopkeeper  flouted  them 
with  his  wit:  ruled  with  his  mind. 

On  a  certain  occasion  five  hundred  of 
them  were  crowded  into  a  building  at  Sydney 
yelling  bloody  murder  and  clamouring  for 
violence.  Suddenly  the  tiny  figure  of  Hughes 
appeared  on  the  platform  before  them.    At 


264         The  War  After  the  War 

first  they  yelled  him  down,  but  he  stood 
smiling,  resolute,  undaunted.  He  began  to 
talk:  the  tumult  subsided:  he  stepped  for- 
ward, stamped  his  foot  and  said  in  a  voice 
that  reached  to  every  corner : 

''You  shall  not  strike."  And  they  did  not 
David  had  defied  the  Goliaths. 

From  that  time  on  Hughes  was  the  Brains 
of  Australian  Labour.  He  organised  his  in- 
dustrial rough  riders  into  a  powerful  and 
constructive  union.  With  it  he  drove  a 
wedge  into  the  New  South  Wales  Legisla- 
ture and  gave  industry,  for  the  first  time,  a 
seat  in  its  Councils.  He  became  its  Parlia- 
mentary Voice.    He  was  only  thirty. 

Having  got  his  foot  in  the  doorway  of 
public  life,  he  now  jammed  the  portal  wide 
open.  As  trade  union  official  he  forged 
ahead.  He  became  the  Father  Confessor 
of  the  Worker.  His  advice  always  was: 
"Avoid  violence :  put  your  faith  in  the  ballot 
box."  With  this  creed  he  tamed  the  Labour 
Jungle :  through  it  he  built  up  an  industrial 
legislative  group  that  acknowledged  him  as 
chief. 

Though  he  was  rising  to  fame  the  strug- 
gle for  existence  was  hard.    No  matter  how 


From  Pedlar  to  Premier         265 

late  he  toiled  in  legislative  hall  or  union  as- 
sembly, he  read  law  when  he  got  home.  He 
was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  despite  his  deaf- 
ness he  became  an  able  advocate.  When  he 
had  to  appear  in  court  he  used  a  special  ap- 
paratus with  wire  attachments  that  ran  to 
the  witness  box  and  the  bench  and  enabled 
him  to  hear  everything  that  was  going  on. 

He  became  a  journalist  and  contributed  a 
weekly  article  to  the  Sydney  Telegraph.  An 
amusing  thing  happened.  He  noticed  that 
remarkable  statements  began  to  creep  into 
his  articles  when  published.  When  he  com- 
plained to  the  editor  he  discovered  that  the 
linotype  operator  who  set  up  his  almost  in- 
decipherable copy  injected  his  own  ideas 
when  he  could  not  make  out  the  stuff. 

The  limitation  of  a  State  Legislature  irked 
Hughes.  He  beheld  the  vision  of  an  Aus- 
tralian Commonwealth  that  would  federate 
all  those  Overseas  States.  When  the  far- 
away dominions  had  been  welded  under  his 
eloquent  appeal  into  a  close-knit  Union,  the 
fragile,  deaf  little  man  emerged  as  Attorney 
General.    At  last  he  had  elbow  room. 

It  was  due  to  his  efforts  that  Australia  got 
National  Service,  an  Officers'  School,  ammu- 


266         The  War  After  the  War 

nition  factories,  military  training  for  school- 
boys. They  were  all  part  of  the  kindling 
campaign  that  he  waged  to  the  stirring 
slogan  of  "Defence,  not  Defiance." 

Always  the  friend  and  champion  of  La- 
bour, he  was  in  the  thick  of  incessant  contro- 
versy. His  enemies  feared  him :  his  friends 
adored  him.  He  got  a  variety  of  names  that 
ranged  all  the  way  from  "Bush  Robes- 
pierre" to  the  "Australian  Abraham  Lin- 
coln." 

The  Great  War  found  Hughes  the  Strong 
Man  of  Australia,  soon  to  be  bound  up  in 
the  larger  Destiny  of  the  Empire. 

Even  before  the  Mother  Country  sent  her 
call  for  help  to  the  Children  beyond  the  seas, 
Hughes  had  offered  the  gallant  contingent 
that  made  history  at  the  Dardanelles. 
Thanks  to  him,  they  were  prepared.  It  was 
Hughes  who  sped  the  Anzacs  on  to  Gallipoli : 
it  was  Hughes  who,  on  his  own  responsibil- 
ity, offered  fifty  thousand  men  more.  These 
men  were  not  in  sight  at  the  moment,  but  the 
intrepid  statesman  went  forth  that  very  day 
and  started  the  crusade  that  rallied  them  at 
once. 

Hughes    was    moving    fast,    but    faster 


From  Pedlar  to  Premier  267 

moved  the  relentless  course  of  the  war.  Gal- 
lipoli's  splendid  failure  had  been  recorded, 
the  Australians  stood  shoulder  to  shoulder 
with  their  British  brothers  in  the  French 
trenches  when  the  opportunity  which  was  to 
make  him  a  world  citizen  knocked  at  his 
door. 

In  October,  1915,  Andrew  Fisher  resigned 
the  Premiership  of  Australia  to  become  High 
Commissioner  in  London,  and  Hughes  was 
named  as  his  successor.  The  puny  lad  who 
had  landed  at  Brisbane  thirty  years  before 
with  half  a  crown  in  his  pocket  sat  en- 
throned. The  reins  of  power  were  his  and 
he  lost  no  time  in  lashing  them. 

How  he  divorced  the  German  from  Aus- 
tralian trade:  how  he  broke  the  Teutonic 
monopoly  of  the  Antipodean  metal  fields  and 
established  the  Australian  Metal  Exchange 
and  made  of  it  an  Imperial  institution  for 
Imperial  revenue  only:  how  he  swept  Eng- 
land with  a  torrent  of  fervid  oratory  rous- 
ing the  whole  nation  to  its  post-war  commer- 
cial responsibilities,  are  all  part  of  very  re- 
cent history  already  woven  into  the  fabric 
of  this  little  volume. 

"Reconstruct  or  decay"  was  his  admoni- 


268         The  War  After  the  War 

tion.  Reluctantly  the  great  mass  of  Eng- 
lish people  saw  him  leave  their  shores  last 
summer.  Already  the  demand  for  his  re- 
call as  unofficial  Speeder-up  of  Patriotism 
is  simmering. 

What  of  the  man  behind  this  drama  of 
almost  unparalleled  performance? 

To  see  Hughes  in  action  is  to  get  the  im- 
pression of  a  human  dynamo  suddenly  let 
loose.  His  face  is  keen  and  sharp :  his  mouth 
thin :  his  cheeks  are  shrunken :  his  arms  and 
legs  are  long  and  he  has  a  curious  way  of 
stuffing  his  clenched  fists  into  his  trousers 
pockets.  Some  one  has  called  him  the  Mira- 
beau  of  the  Australian  Proletariat.  Cer- 
tainly he  looks  it.  He  has  a  nervous  energy 
almost  beyond  belief.  By  birth,  tempera- 
ment, experience  and  point  of  view  he  is  a 
firebrand,  but  with  this  difiference:  he  is 
a  Human  Flame  that  reasons. 

Only  Lloyd  George  surpasses  him  in  force 
and  fervour  of  eloquence.  He  has  a  mar- 
vellous trick  of  expression  that  never  fails 
to  make  a  winning  appeal.  His  speeches  are 
the  Bible  of  the  Australian  worker,  and  they 
are  fast  becoming  part  of  the  Gospel  of  the 


From  Pedlar  to  Premier         269 

wide-awake  and  progressive  British  wage- 
earner. 

Since  he  was  the  first  Statesman  of  the 
Empire  to  appreciate  the  grave  business  re- 
sponsibilities that  will  come  with  peace,  it 
is  interesting  to  get  his  ideas  on  the  relation 
between  Trade  and  Government.  In  one  of 
his  impassioned  speeches  in  England  he  de- 
clared : 

''The  relations  between  modern  trade  in- 
terests and  national  welfare  are  so  intimate 
and  complex  that  they  cannot  be  treated  as 
though  they  were  not  parts  of  one  organic 
whole.  No  sane  person  now  suggests  that 
the  foreign  policy  of  the  country  should  be 
dealt  with  by  the  laissez-faire  policy.  No 
one  would  dare  openly  to  contend  that  the 
national  policy  should  be  one  of  'drift/  al- 
though I  admit  that  there  are  many  most  ex- 
cellent persons  who  by  their  attitude  seem 
to  resent  any  attempt  to  steer  the  ship  of 
State  along  a  definite  course  as  being  an  im- 
pious attempt  to  usurp  the  functions  of 
Providence,  whose  special  business  they  con- 
ceive this  to  be. 

"I  want  to  make  one  thing  quite  clear,  that 
what  I  am  advocating  is  not  merely  a  change 


270         The  War  After  the  War 

of  fiscal  policy,  not  merely  or  even  neces- 
sarily what  is  called  Tariff  Reform — al- 
though this  may,  probably  will,  incidentally 
follow — but  a  fundamental  change  in  our 
ideas  of  government  as  applied  to  economic 
and  national  matters.  The  fact  is  that  the 
whole  concept  of  modern  statesmanship 
needs  revision.  But  England  has  been,  and 
is,  the  chief  of  sinners.  Quite  apart  from 
the  idea  of  a  self-contained  Empire  there  is 
the  idea  of  Britain  as  an  organized  nation. 
And  the  British  Empire  as  an  organized  Em- 
pire, organised  for  trade,  for  industry,  for 
economic  justice,  for  national  defence,  for 
the  preservation  of  the  world's  peace,  for 
the  protection  of  the  weak  against  the  strong. 
That  is  a  noble  ideal.  It  ought  to  be — it 
must  be — ours." 

An  extract  from  another  notable  address 
will  reveal  his  gift  of  words.  Commenting 
on  the  frightful  price  in  human  life  and 
treasure  that  the  Empire  was  paying,  he 
said: 

"Let  us  take  this  solemn  lesson  to  heart. 
Let  us,  resolutely  putting  aside  all  consid- 
erations of  party,  class,  and  doctrine,  with- 
out delay,  proceed  to  devise  a  policy  for  the 


From  Pedlar  to  Premier         271 

British  Empire,  a  policy  which  shall  cover 
every  phase  of  our  national,  economic,  and 
social  life;  which  shall  develop  our  tre- 
mendous resources,  and  yet  be  compatible 
with  those  ideals  of  liberty  and  justice  for 
which  our  ancestors  fought  and  died,  and 
for  which  the  men  of  our  race  now,  in  this, 
the  greatest  of  all  wars,  are  fighting  and 
dying  in  a  fashion  worthy  of  their  breeding. 

"Let  us  set  sail  upon  a  definite  course  as 
becomes  a  mighty  nation  to  whom  has  been 
entrusted  the  destiny  of  one-fourth  of  the 
whole  human  race." 

Hughes  is  the  most  accessible  of  men.  The 
humblest  wharf-rustler  in  Australia  hails 
him  by  his  first  name.  A  characteristic  inci- 
dent will  show  the  comradeship  that  exists 
between  this  leader  and  his  constituency. 

On  his  last  visit  to  England  he  crossed 
over  to  France  to  visit  the  Australian  troops 
at  the  front.  He  was  walking  through  a 
trench  accompanied  by  General  Birdwood, 
who  is  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  overseas 
contingent,  and  stopped  to  chat  with  a  group 
of  soldiers  who  had  fought  at  Gallipoli.  Sud- 
denly a  shell  shrieked  overhead.  A  Tommy 
from  Sydney  yelled  to  the  Premier : 


272         The  War  After  the  War 

"Duck,  Billy,  duck  r 

Here  is  practical  democracy.  Nowhere, 
in  all  the  varied  human  side  of  the  war,  does 
it  find  more  impressive  embodiment  than  in 
the  self-made  little  Australian  whose  life  is 
a  miracle  of  progress. 

Of  such  stuff  as  this  are  the  Builders  of 
the  British  To-morrow! 


THE  END 


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